The Augustan Art of Poetry Augustan Translation of the Classics [Hardcover]

While previous studies have concentrated largely upon political concerns,The Augustan Art of Poetryis an exploration of the influence of the Roman Augustan aesthetic on English neo-classical poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At the conclusion of his translation of Virgil, Dryden claims implicitly to have given English poetry the kind of refinement in language and style that Virgil had given the Latin. In this timely new study Robin Sowerby offers a strong apologia for the fine artistry of the Augustans, concentrating in particular on the period's translations, a topic and method not hitherto ventured in any full-length comparative study. The mediation of the Augustan aesthetic is explored through theDe Arte Poeticaof Vida represented in the Augustan version of Pitt, and its culmination is represented by examination of Dryden's Virgil in relation to predecessors. The effect of the Augustan aesthetic upon versions of silver Latin poets and upon Pope's Homer is also assessed and comparisons are drawn with modern translations.

1. The art of poetry: Vida to Pope
The education of the poet: setting the cultural scene
The Virgilian Ars: disposition of the poet's material
The Virgilian Ars: language and style
Conclusion to Vida
2. The Augustan ideal: rhyme and refinement
Early English classicism
The early Augustan aesthetic in English
The full Augustan aesthetic
Mastery of the medium: the continuing debate about rhyme
Appendix: The continuing debate about rhyme
3. Augustan translation of silver Latin
Dryden's translation of Persius and Juvenal: Dryden's critical assessment
Rowe's Lucan
Pope's Statius
4. Augustan Homer
Heroic beginnings: The Episode of Sarpedon
The main fable: the anger of Achilles
The art of Pope's Homer
The challenge of the Odyssey

This comparative analysis demonstrates its central virtue over and over again, as the reader is encouraged to follow the alc,