Today’s new poem is the story as told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses of Daedalus the legendary craftsman and his son Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun
Cynthia wakes as Propertius returns from his night out – what reception will he get? Hear the poem in Latin and follow in English here as crockery is about to fly.
At first Aeneas’s Father Anchises didn’t want to go, but now his son carries him to safety through the flames as Troy falls. Hear Virgil’s poetry in Latin and follow in English here.The painting is by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld.
In the latest extract from Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas recalls the fate of Troy’s King, Priam, as he continues to tell the story of the fall of Troy to Queen Dido of Carthage. The painting is by Jean Baptiste Regnault.
Is Catullus losing Lebia? It looks like it. Hear the poem in Latin and follow it in English here.
This non-Latin poem is a skit on the nursery rhyme, “Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross” by James Joyce who wrote it to promote a chapter that he was publishing of Finnegans Wake – Anna Livia Plurabelle is Dublin’s river Liffey personified. Joyce belongs on Pantheon Poets for his debt to Homer, and if you do not know this little piece, I think you will like it.
We last saw Goethe revelling in the Roman decor of his study. in this poem to the Moon, he is in a sadder and more tender mood, reflecting sadly on the beauty of nature and the changeability of happiness and affection.
On Troy’s last night, Hector appears to Aeneas in a dream. He tells Aeneas that the city is falling: he must escape and preserve the heritage of Troy by founding a great citadel for the City’s Gods across the seas. Hear the poem in Latin and follow it in English here.