The Poems (The World's Classics) - Softcover

Propertius

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192831984 ISBN 13: 9780192831989

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Of the Greek and Latin love poets, Propertius (c. 50-10 B.C.) is one of those who holds the most immediate appeal for the twentieth-century reader. His helpless infatuation for the sinister figure of his mistress Cynthia forms the main subject of his poetry, and is analyzed with a tormented
but witty grandeur in all its changing moods--from ecstasy to suicidal despair. This study includes English verse translations of his work, along with a chronology, explanatory notes, and a brief bibliography.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Of all the Greek and Latin love poets, Propertius (c.50-10 BC) is one of those who perhaps holds most immediate appeal for the twentieth century reader. His helpless infatuation for the sinister figure of his mistress Cynthia forms the main subject of his poetry, and is analysed with a tormented but witty grandeur in all its changing moods - from ecstacy to suicidal despair. The son of an Umbrian landowner who fought on the wrong side in the Civil War after Caesar's murder, he lost his father and most of his family estate in boyhood and was brought up by his mother. He was able nevertheless to reject a legal or military career and to devote his life to the art of poetry, in which he is a far more self-conscious practitioner than most of the other Latin poets. His modern popularity was furthered in particular by Ezra Pound's Homage to Sextus Propertius (1919).

About the Author

Guy Lee is a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He is the translator of The Poems of Catullus in World's Classics. R. O. A. M. Lyne is a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is the author of Further Voices in Virgil's Aeneid (Clarendon Press).

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192831984
• ISBN 13: 9780192831989
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232