The Poems (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Propertius

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192835734 ISBN 13: 9780192835734

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 1999

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

Review:

Sensual, bitchy, soppy, satirical, this great sequence of love-hate poems lives again in Lee's vivid versions. Not just a scintillating survey of erotic agony and ecstacy, but a witty glimpse of the smart set in Rome. (New Statesman & Society )

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 this edition

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0192835734
• ISBN 13: 9780192835734
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240