Lyric Poetry

(This subject may not be combined with III. 3 Historiography, 7 Comedy, 15 (b) Late Latin Hexameter Poetry, or 15 (e) Reception of Classical Literature. It is examined by pre-submitted essay and 1.5 hr translation paper [see Introduction to this Greek & Latin Literature section].)

The development of lyric poetry is one of the most striking in ancient literary history, and the ‘genre’ presents some of the most attractive and rewarding smaller-scale poems in Greek and Latin. Lyric poetry—poetry in stanzas, not couplets or repeated lines—starts as one of the chief types of archaic poetry. It embraces a huge diversity of scale, performance, metre, dialect, as part of localized cultures: Alcman’s choral songs, Sappho’s ‘personal’ poems, etc. International poets emerge, working across the Greek world: the richly complex poems of Pindar form a climax. After late fifth-century experimentation comes Hellenistic recreation of archaic lyric; Latin lyric recreates Hellenistic lyric (Catullus) and, through the Hellenistic recreations, archaic lyric (Horace). Horace’s work aims both at conquering the whole classic territory and at producing a highly individual version of lyric, ironically based on limitations. His endlessly subtle Odes restore lyric to literary centrality. The subject combines immense range with much scope for the close analysis of poems.

Advance reading: G. O. Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces (Oxford 2001), introductions to individual poets; D. C. Feeney, ‘Horace and the Greek Lyric Poets’, in N. Rudd, ed., Horace 2000: A Celebration. Essays for the Bimillennium (London 1995) 41-63.

Teaching: University lectures and classes, and tutorials.