At 10:28 PM 1/18/2004 -0000, Francis Browne wrote:
>>>>
I am sure that my own experience is that of many. It is delight in poetry
and music that has often led me to learn about the historical background
rather than historical study leading to enjoyment of a work of art. Delight
in the poetry of Dante leads to exploration of Italian history and medieval
philosophy ( and incidentally a different approach to the narrative skills
of Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Statius). Delight in Bach leads to a study of
the Germany of his time and the Lutheran tradition. It is of course a
question of emphasis . Background knowledge gained leads to deeper
appreciation, but delight in the poetry remains primary and the inspiration
for further study.
<<<<
You are right. As a teacher, I am usually most excited about the things
that I am learning about the poem _right now_. Thus, it is hard for me to
talk about the fall of Troy (in bk. 2) without saying something about the
decline of the Republic, which comes about, in Virgil's vision, not by the
deeds of one man, but by competition and by dint of little wounds inflicted
over time:
ac ueluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum
cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant
eruere agricolae _certatim_, illa usque minatur
et tremefacta comam concusso uertice nutat,
_uulneribus donec paulatim euicta_ supremum
congemuit traxitque iugis auulsa ruinam. (Aen. 2.626ff.)
This, I am tempted to say, is what bk. 2 is really about. But when I was
eighteen, I didn't know or see any of this. What moved me then were the
falling star and the omen of fire and, at the end of the book, going up
into the mountains. To me, then, Virgil was the great romantic poet. And I
am not at all confident that, in moving from a romantic appreciation to a
historical appreciation, I am somehow closer to the poet's heart. Knowing
some of the history, I think I see more of the heart. But the historical
"chamber" of that heart is not, so far as I can tell, more real than the
romantic one. For us, it is more work to discern the historical chamber,
and we are tempted, because it has cost us so much effort, to infer that
what is secret (from us) was also sacred (for Virgil). This may be an
illusion.
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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
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