Poems of Sextus Propertius - Softcover

McCulloch, J. P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520027744 ISBN 13: 9780520027749

Publisher: Univ of California Pr, 1972

Synopsis

Of all the great classical love poets, Propertius (c. 50-10 BC) is surely one of those with most immediate appeal for readers today. 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 ecstasy to suicidal despair.

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: Univ of California Pr
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520027744
• ISBN 13: 9780520027749
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 267