The exact nature of his debt to each is a matter of dispute. In general terms, however, it is safe to say that he drew his ability to convey grandeur (the Aegeus passage in poem 64) from the language of epic and tragedy; that he guessed at the uses to which colloquialism and realism might be put from the comico-satiric tradition; and that it was in the last, the somewhat precious form of the love epigram, that he saw the opportunity for original development. But a poet’s greatness rests largely on the extent to which he is able to effect a synthesis of preceding traditions while producing
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