Roman Poetry by Dorothea Wender

Roman Poetry by Dorothea Wender

Thebest of classical Latin poetry in a vital English verse translation described by early readers as superb. Ms. Wen­der, who is a published creative writer as well as a classicist, has done much with her unflinching translations to re­storethe powerwielded by the originalpoems.

She has increased the usefulness and accessibility of her collection by pro­viding a lively introduction to each of the nine poets she presents in transla­tion. When little is known about the poet himself, she places him within a coterie of contemporaries who are better known. The poets and works presented are: Catullus, Songs;Lucretius, Selec­tions from DeRerum Natura;Virgil, Eclogues 2and 4 and selections from the Georgics;Horace, Satire 1, 9(The Bore) and selected Odes;Propertius, Elegies;Tibullus, Elegy 1, 1; Ovid, Amores and Echo and Narcissus from Metamorphoses;Martial, Epigrams;and Juvenal, Satire 3 (The City of Rome).

Dorothea Wender, professor and chair of the Department of Classics at Wheaton college, Norton, Massachusetts, is a poet (verse translations of Hesiod and Theognis); scholar (The Last Scenes of the Odyssey); writer of Children’s books (Frankie and the Fawn); and fiction writer (Murder Gets a Degree).