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The Eclogues Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Eclogues
Notes
Select Bibliography
Anonymous
Posted June 3, 2004
This review is of the Penguin Classics edition of -The Eclogues-, translated by Guy Lee, 1984, 131 pp. An 'eclogue' is a pastoral poem (from the Latin meaning 'shepherd, or herdsman'). These 10 Eclogues by Virgil contain poems about shepherds, laments by shepherds to heartless beloveds, singing matches between shepherds, 'prophecy' (of a new golden age), lamenting song for the death of a beloved, a poetic recounting of the beginning of things and the Muses' gift of bucolic song, recounting of song contests and their subjects, the sad recounting of evictions from farms, and pining away for unrequited love. However, the poems are also 'contemporary' in that they contain 'hidden' reference to political, social, and personal events related to the Rome of Virgil's time (Virgil's life extending from 70 to 19 B.C.). According to the Introduction, these poems were written between 42 and 37 B.C. This Penguin edition is formatted very well, with a very informative Introduction relating Virgil's poems to those of the Greek Bucolic poet, Theocritus, one page introductions to each Eclogue, Notes to explain phrases and allusions, and a very extensive Select Bibliography. The slight caution, here, is the poetic format which Lee has chosen for his translation. The poetic form is readable and understandable, but not as fluid and fully developed as the prose translation by H.R. Fairclough (Revised by G.P. Goold) in the Loeb Classical Library volume 63, Harvard University Press, which contains the -Eclogues-, the -Georgics-, and the -Aeneid- (Books 1-6). Lee's translation and poetic presentation of the beginning of Eclogue I is: Tityrus, lying back beneath wide beechen cover,/You meditate the woodland Muse on slender oat/. Fairclough's prose presentation in the Loeb edition is: You, Tityrus, lie under the canopy of a spreading beech, wooing the woodland Muse on slender reed (musical flute). The Penguin gets 4 stars for poetic form, and 5 stars for format, supplementary information, and price.
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