Words and the Poet: Characteristic Techniques of Style in Vergil's Aeneid

by R.O.A.M. Lyne

Throughout his vast literary output, to a surprising extent, Vergil avoided artifacts of poetic diction like archaism and grecism, preferring instead ordinary language that grew from the common stock of the Latin tongue such as colloquialisms and prosaisms. This remarkabley coherent and
readable study identifies and categorizes such diction in Vergil's writings showing further how such comparatively unpromising material was converted by the poet's methods of "combination" ( unctura ) into poetry. In a critical analysis, Lyne draws parallels between Horace's procedures in combining
works to "make them new," and Vergil's bold combinations which veritably extort unexpected and novel sense.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 18, 1990

About the author

Richard Oliver Allen Marcus Lyne, also known as R.O.A.M. Lyne, was a British academic and classicist specialising in Latin poetry. He was a tutor in classics at Balliol College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford.