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Horace's
Odes are one of the greatest achievements of Latin literature. Richard Tarrant situates the
Odes in the context of Horace's poetic career and defines their relationship to earlier literature. A number of poems are analyzed in detail, illustrating Horace's range of subject matter and his characteristic techniques of form and structure.
List of contents
- Editors' Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Reading the Odes Today
- 1. Horace's Life
- 2. Before the Odes
- 3. To the Cool Grove: The Ascent to Lyric
- 4. Odes 1-3: The Collection
- 5. Three Odes
- 6. Friendship and Advice
- 7. Amatory Poems
- 8. Political Poems
- 9. After the Odes I: The Book of Epistles
- 10. Lyric Revisited: The Carmen saeculare and the Fourth Book of Odes
- 11. After the Odes II: The Literary Epistles
- 12. Reception of the Odes: From Propertius to Seamus Heaney
- Further Reading
- Works Cited
- Indexes
About the author
Richard Tarrant is Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, emeritus, at Harvard University.
Summary
Horace's Odes are one of the greatest achievements of Latin literature. Richard Tarrant situates the Odes in the context of Horace's poetic career and defines their relationship to earlier literature. A number of poems are analyzed in detail, illustrating Horace's range of subject matter and his characteristic techniques of form and structure.
Additional text
This is a superb introduction to Horace's Odes.... Clear, expert orientation for newcomers and their guides is thus a valuable commodity, and Tarrant provides it in generous supply. There is good coverage: 66 of the 88 poems in Odes 1–3 and all the poems of book 4 receive some comment or discussion. Throughout the book there is an easy control of this disparate material, frequent, illuminating comparisons within and beyond the poems themselves, and a wealth of observations pointing to a deep familiarity with these poems.... His lucid and insightful book can be warmly recommended to this audience and to readers more familiar with the Odes as one of the best introductions now available.
