Structure + Style

tone
1. serious, elegiac, ironic
  1. e.g. even when describing the beauties of the countryside, Virgil conveys a subtle sense of sadness at the way of life that will vanish
2. express hope for the future
3. very focused on the transitory nature of human affairs
4. subject matter of struggle + wandering + warfare
5. a sense of irony every time things seem too quiet, something will come to cause chaos
Epic Poetry
1. what is
  1. a long poem recounting the actions of men, gods + heroes
  2. uses poetic meter of "dactylic hexameter"
2. innovator
  1. first to make connections with recent political history within the epic
influenced by the "epyllion" (little epic)
1. became popular with sophisticated Greek Alexandrian poets of the 3rd century B.C.
2. later picked up by Roman poets
  1. e.g. Catullus (died when Virgil was 20)
3. genre also written in "dactylic hexameter" but on a shorter scale than true epic
4. usually written in a witty + learned style, dealing with the theme of love
5. various scenes, especially with Dido, show influence from this genre
writing style
1. poetic, subtle, meticulous
2. writes in dactylic hexameter
3. characterised by a very precise attention to each individual word + the shades of meaning it conveys
4. shades of meaning arise from connections with other literary works, especially the Iliad + Odyssey, though connections are not always straightforward
  1. can torque a reference to Homer to get a different point across
  2. e.g. borrows the idea of annoying the subject in the first line
    1. line 1, Book 1:: "Arma virumque cano" - of war and the man I sing
5. highly visual imagination
  1. e.g. Book 2, the Fall of Troy
6. visual + intellectual aspects are complemented by a very close attention to the sound of the lines
7. incredible care he puts into investing every line of his poem with the maximum amount of meaning
8. complex texture of allusions to Homer + variety of other ancient sources
9. basic school text-book in the Ancient World
10. has an incredible influence on nearly every European art form ever seen
IMPORTANT EXCEPTION: line 470, last syllable is elided

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Structure + Style

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	Created by Marta Cortada about 8 years ago