Narrative has not traditionally been a subject in the analysis of lyric poetry. This book deconstructs the polarity that divides and binds lyric and narrative means of representation in Horace's Odes. While myth is a canonical feature of Pindaric epinician, Horace cannot adopt the Pindaric mode for aesthetic and political reasons. Roman Callimacheanism's privileging of the small and elegant offers a pretext for Horace to shrink from the difficulty of writing
praise poetry in the wake of civil war. But Horace by no means excludes story-telling from his enacted lyric. On the formal level, numerous odes contain narration. Together they constitute a larger narrative told over the course of Horace's two lyric collections. Horace tells the story of his development as
a lyricist and of the competing aesthetic and political demands on his lyric poetry. At issue is whether he can ever truly become a poet of praise.
- ISBN10 0198150539
- ISBN13 9780198150534
- Publish Date 10 July 1997
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 396
- Language English