Archives: Poets
Pindar
518-446 BCE
Pindar, laureate of victors in the sacred games.
Pythian 4 lines 224-250
Pindar Pythian 4 – Arkesilas
Αλλ᾽ ὅτ᾽ Αἰήτας ἀδαμάντινον ἐν μέσσοις ἄροτρον σκίμψατο
King Aeetes' challenge
Pope
1688 - 1744
Alexander Pope, the great Georgian poet and wit, was also a translator of Homer.
Opening lines from Homer’s Iliad
The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring
A Georgian wit attempts to render the epic of ancient Greece
Propertius
About 55 BCE - after 16 BCE
Much of Propertius’s work is love poetry to a mistress he calls Cynthia. A love/hate element often features in the feelings that poets express for their mistresses, and in Propertius both elements are particularly vivid.
Elegies, Book 1.2
The beauty of simplicity
Quid iuvat ornato procedere, vita, capillo
Propertius's praise of natural beauty in women
Elegies, Book 1.3
Propertius and his sleeping beauty
Qualis Thesea iacuit cedente carina
Propertius returns from a night out
Elegies, Book 1.4
Back off, Bassus!
Quid mihi tam multas laudando, Basse, puellas
Give up Cynthia for someon else? Never, Bassus!
Elegies, Book 1.5
Back off, Gallus!
Invide, tu tandem voces compesce molestas
Propertius deters a riveal
Elegies, Book 1.12
A change of fortune
Quid mihi desidiae non cessas fingere crimen,
Propertius and the pains of separation
Elegies, Book 1.16
The lover’s complaint to the door
Quae fueram magnis olim patefacta triumphis
The lover's complaint to the door
Elegies, Book 2.22A
Propertius on the razzle
Scis here mi multas placuere puellas
Propertius in insatiable mood
Elegies, Book 4.7
The last of Cynthia?
Sunt aliquid Manes, letum non omnia finit
Poor Cynthia is no more ...
Elegies, Book 4.8
The last of Cynthia!
disce, quid Esquilias hac nocte fugarit aquosas
Propertius and Cynthia's final reconciliation
Racine
1638 - 1699
Jean Racine, 1638 – 1699, is one of France’s great flowering of dramatic poets in the 17th century
Phèdre, Act II, Scene V
Phaedra declares her love
Ah cruel! Tu m'as trop entendue!
Phèdre confesses her love
Rilke
1875 - 1926
The poetry of Rilke, a German-language poet, 1876 - 1926, was strongly introspective and included examination of how individuals can relate to transcendent issues such as death and the godhead.
Der Schwan (The Swan)
Diese Mühsal, durch noch Ungetanes
Rilke sees a metaphor for life and death in the swan on land and on water.
Schiller
1759 - 1805
Friedrich von Schiller, 1759 - 1805, the great contemporary of Goethe, wrote a first-rate translation of Books 2 and 4 of Virgil's Aeneid, covering the fall of Troy and Aeneas's love-affair with Dido.
Aeneid Book 2 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 6 - 9
Laocoon’s warning
Mit Staunen weilt der überraschte Blick
Laocoon's warning
Schiller's version of the Aeneid, Book 2, stanzas 35 - 39
Friedrich Schiller recounts the death of Laocoon
Jetzt aber stellt sich den entsetzten Blicken
Friedrich Schiller recounts the death of Laocoon
Aeneid Book 2 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 50 - 53
Aeneas is visited by Hector’s ghost
O sprich, und welcher Frevel durft’ es wagen,
In Schiller's German version, the fall of Troy has begun.
Aeneid Book 2 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 95 - 97
Schiller’s death of Priam
So, wahrlich, hielt’s mit seinem Feinde nicht
Schiller's translation of the death of Priam
Aeneid Book 4 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 24 - 31
A royal affair begins
Indeß war Eos leuchtendes Gespann
The royal affair begins
Aeneis 4, 67 - 72
Schiller tells of Dido’s anguish
Längst hatte sie, indem er sprach, den Rücken
Dido's complaint to Aeneas, by Schiller
Aeneid Book 4 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 73 - 75
Aeneas prepares to leave Carthage
Wie feurig auch der Menschliche sich sehnt
The Trojans prepare to sail from Carthage.
Aeneid Book 4 in Schiller's German translation, stanzas 125 - 128
Schiller describes the last of Dido
Sie ruft's, und steht schon oben auf den Stufen
Schiller describes Dido's final end
Mourning and hope
Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget
Schiller's sad elegy for the transience of beauty
Shakespeare
1564 - 1616
Troilus and Cressida, Act III Scene 3
Shakespeare eavesdrops on Odysseus and Achilles
I do believe it, for they pass'd by me
Ulysses suggests that celebrities cannot rest on their laurels.
Tennyson
1809 - 1892
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is a classic example of a relatively modern writer who was strongly influenced by his deep knowledge and love of Latin poetry.
Tibullus
?55 - ?19 BCE
Tibullus, c55 - c19 BC, one of the Augustan writers of love poetry in elegiac metre.
Tibullus 1.1, lines 53 - 78
Tibullus’s appeal to Delia
Te bellare decet terra, Messalla, marique
Tibullus's opening poem