Structure + Style

Structure + Style

1. tone

   • serious, elegiac, ironic
     • e.g. even when describing the beauties of the countryside, Virgil conveys a subtle sense of sadness at the way of life that will vanish
   • express hope for the future
   • very focused on the transitory nature of human affairs
   • subject matter of struggle + wandering + warfare
   • a sense of irony every time things seem too quiet, something will come to cause chaos

2. Epic Poetry

   • what is
     • a long poem recounting the actions of men, gods + heroes
     • uses poetic meter of "dactylic hexameter"
   • innovator
     • first to make connections with recent political history within the epic

3. influenced by the "epyllion" (little epic)

   • became popular with sophisticated Greek Alexandrian poets of the 3rd century B.C.
   • later picked up by Roman poets
     • e.g. Catullus (died when Virgil was 20)
   • genre also written in "dactylic hexameter" but on a shorter scale than true epic
   • usually written in a witty + learned style, dealing with the theme of love
   • various scenes, especially with Dido, show influence from this genre

4. writing style

   • poetic, subtle, meticulous
   • writes in dactylic hexameter
   • characterised by a very precise attention to each individual word + the shades of meaning it conveys
   • shades of meaning arise from connections with other literary works, especially the Iliad + Odyssey, though connections are not always straightforward
     • can torque a reference to Homer to get a different point across
     • e.g. borrows the idea of annoying the subject in the first line
       • line 1, Book 1:: "Arma virumque cano" - of war and the man I sing
   • highly visual imagination
     • e.g. Book 2, the Fall of Troy
   • visual + intellectual aspects are complemented by a very close attention to the sound of the lines
   • incredible care he puts into investing every line of his poem with the maximum amount of meaning
   • complex texture of allusions to Homer + variety of other ancient sources
   • basic school text-book in the Ancient World
   • has an incredible influence on nearly every European art form ever seen

5. IMPORTANT EXCEPTION: line 470, last syllable is elided