Musa Pedestris: Metre and Meaning in Roman Verse

by Llewelyn Morgan

Overview

A characteristic of Greek and Latin poetry (sometimes an intimidating one) is the variety of metrical shapes it can adopt. Llewelyn Morgan offers an accessible account of some of the most common of these metres in Roman poetry, and explains how the poets can exploit them to support, supplement, or indeed drive the meaning of the poems they carry. Metre is revealed as an aspect of Roman poetry which is every bit as creative as its word play, and new insights are given to a range of Roman poems, from reassessments of familiar poems by Catullus and Horace to explanations of the remarkable artistry underlying less mainstream works by Martial, Statius, and Lucilius.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199554188
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/04/2011
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Llewelyn Morgan is University Lecturer in Classical Languages and Literature, Oxford University and a Fellow of Brasenose College

Table of Contents

Introduction: the iconography of metre1. The hendecasyllable: an abbreviated history2. Iambics: the short and the long of it3. ‘Narrower circuits': the sapphic stanza4. The dactylic hexameter and its detractorsConclusion