Description
Book SynopsisConcerns the way we read - or rather, imagine we are listening to - ancient Greek and Latin poetry. This book shows how an understanding of the effects of word order and meter is vital for appreciating the meaning of classical poetry, composed for listening audiences.
Trade Review"If by this book [Edwards] succeeds in heightening sensitivity to the features which he seeks to recuperate, he will indeed have done good service to his peers and successors ... and have given renewed hope for the continued vitality of ancient Greek and Latin literature."--Michael W. Haslam, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "This lively and often fascinating exposition of the sound of ancient poetry and its relation to sense and meaning, especially as perceived by the listening audience, is relevant to anyone who tries to understand ancient literature in context... [T]his book is enlightening for both scholars and general readers of the classics, indeed for those interested in the relation between sound and sense in any literature and for lovers of the poetry of any culture."--Jonathan J. Price, Religious Studies Review
Table of ContentsPreface ix CHAPTER ONE: Homer I: Poetry and Speech 1 The Older Discoveries: Frankel and Parry 2 The New Theories. Functional Grammar and the Grammar of Speech 9 Homeric Style in Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur 14 Homeric Style in the Duels of Achilles 18 CHAPTER TWO: Homer 11: Scenes and Summaries 38 The Book Divisions 39 The Paragraph Divisions 47 Joining Episode to Episode 53 Continuity and Oral Poetics 58 CHAPTER THREE: Music and Meaning in Three Songs of Aeschylus 62 The First Choral Song (Agamemnon 104-257) 71 The Second Choral Song (Agamemnon 367-488) 81 The Third Choral Song (Agamemnon 681-781) 88 The Rest of the Agamemnon, and of the Trilogy 95 CHAPTER FOUR: Poetry in the Latin Language 99 Latin Word Order 99 Ambiguity in Latin Verse 105 Propertius 1.19 109 AFTERWORD 125 APPENDIX A: Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur 129 APPENDIX B: " Continuity in Mrs. Dalloway 149 APPENDIX C: The Performance of Homeric Episodes 151 APPENDIX D: Classical Meters in Modern English Verse 166 REFERENCES 179 INDEX 189
