Coffee: A Poem - Softcover

Guillaume Massieu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910345792 ISBN 13: 9781910345795

Publisher: Arc Publications, 2019

Synopsis

We do not often think nowadays of hot drinks as a subject for poetry, but the eighteenth century viewed things rather differently, with poems on an extraordinary range of topics electricity, solar and lunar eclipses, scientifc instruments, gardening, and, indeed, hot drinks.

One of the most successful of these poems, at least in terms of its number of appearances in anthologies and in translation, was the Abbé Massieu s poem Caffĉum, Carmen (Coffee: A Poem), a relatively short long poem written in Latin which was esteemed by contemporaries and able to attract readers for over a century after its author s death.

Latin verse continued to be a lively and successful cultural phenomenon well into the eighteenth century and this ingenious and entertaining poem not only tells us all about the origins and the real or alleged properties of coffee but even how to make a cup of coffee.

John Gilmour s witty translation in rhyming couplets perfectly captures the humour and playfulness of the original poem, and his introduction helps to locate both poem and author in their historic context.

About this title

About the Author

Guillaume Massieu was born in the Normandy town of Caen in 1665, studied as a young man at the Jesuit Collège de Louis-le-Grand in Paris where he discovered his enthusiasm was for literature. He was fortunate to fnd influential patrons, was made a member of the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Médailles, subsequently became Professor of Greek at the Collège royal de France, and was fnally elected a member of the Académie française. His last years were clouded by illness, and he died in 1722 at the age of 58.

Edition details

• Publisher: Arc Publications
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1910345792
• ISBN 13: 9781910345795
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 64