Androcles’s Reviews > Poets in a Landscape > Status Update

I found the chapter on Vergil somewhat uninspiring. The next one on Propertius whom to my shame I had never heard of is fascinating. Another Roman poet consumed by his passion for a feisty woman - in this case Cynthia.

Am enjoying being educated by this author. On a poem by Catullus he comments: "... and its true theme is the fascination and terror which can be inspired in a sensitive soul by the subliminal powers of orgiastic religion and the dominating character of an evil woman." Mmmh, powerful stuff !

Reading snippets from 'Poets in a Landscape' provides a marvelous respite and counterpoint to the daily 'cut-and-thrust'. Yesterday I spent a little time with Horace in the Sabine hills which resonated with some long-forgotten distant childhood memory: "Hail, Bandusian spring, clearer than crystal pure,fountain worthy of sweet wine and of wreaths of flowers .... "