To David Wilson-Okamura:
The lines you have cited here are not part of the 1900 lines requred
for the AP Latin exam so I have not read and reread them as I have so many
other parts of the Aeneid. I find your comment on these lines
very helpful and inciteful. David Wilson-Okamura
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 10:52
AM
Subject: RE: VIRGIL: teaching Aeneid in
translation
At 10:28 PM 1/18/2004 -0000, Francis Browne wrote:
>>>>
I am sure that my own experience is that of many. It
is delight in poetry
and music that has often led me to learn about the
historical background
rather than historical study leading to enjoyment of
a work of art. Delight
in the poetry of Dante leads to exploration of
Italian history and medieval
philosophy ( and incidentally a
different approach to the narrative skills
of Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and
Statius). Delight in Bach leads to a study of
the Germany of his time and
the Lutheran tradition. It is of course a
question of emphasis . Background
knowledge gained leads to deeper
appreciation, but delight in the poetry
remains primary and the inspiration
for further
study.
<<<<
You are right. As a teacher, I am
usually most excited about the things
that I am learning about the poem
_right now_. Thus, it is hard for me to
talk about the fall of Troy (in bk.
2) without saying something about the
decline of the Republic, which comes
about, in Virgil's vision, not by the
deeds of one man, but by competition
and by dint of little wounds inflicted
over time:
ac ueluti summis
antiquam in montibus ornum
cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus
instant
eruere agricolae _certatim_, illa usque minatur
et tremefacta
comam concusso uertice nutat,
_uulneribus donec paulatim euicta_
supremum
congemuit traxitque iugis auulsa ruinam. (Aen.
2.626ff.)
This, I am tempted to say, is what bk. 2 is really about. But
when I was
eighteen, I didn't know or see any of this. What moved me then
were the
falling star and the omen of fire and, at the end of the book,
going up
into the mountains. To me, then, Virgil was the great romantic
poet. And I
am not at all confident that, in moving from a romantic
appreciation to a
historical appreciation, I am somehow closer to the
poet's heart. Knowing
some of the history, I think I see more of the heart.
But the historical
"chamber" of that heart is not, so far as I can tell,
more real than the
romantic one. For us, it is more work to discern the
historical chamber,
and we are tempted, because it has cost us so much
effort, to infer that
what is secret (from us) was also sacred (for
Virgil). This may be
an
illusion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
David
Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
East Carolina
University Virgil reception, discussion, documents,
&c
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