The Classical Spring Poem

Abstract

<p>Despite the existence of valuable commentaries on some Classical spring poems, this area of study has been insufficiently explored. After providing a definition and a schema of the spring poem as such, this dissertation investigates, through the detailed analysis of the specific spring poems (Catullus 46; Horace Odes 1. 4, 4. 7, 4. 12; Palatine Anthology 9. 363, 10. l, 2, 4, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16 and Ovid Tristia 3.12), the evolution undergone by this genre from the third century B.C. to the sixth century AD.</p> <p> The Greek spring poems form an obvious group, as their authors follow A.P. 10.1 as a model, employing its schema and some of its elements, while trying to vary and improve on the chronologically earlier poems. Distancing themselves from the Greek tradition, the Latin authors take the genre off in significant new directions, starting new trends and making major changes both in the content and tone of their poems. Defined by their thematic and generic admixture, the Latin spring poems are distinguished by a complexity, depth of thought and variety of form unkown to the Greek tradition.</p> <p>From the spring poems of the Palatine Anthology to Ovid's Tr. 3.12, the genre has known a remarkable evolution. Despite the apparent simplicity of the theme, the authors of the Classical spring poems have reached high levels of sophistication in the way they have succeeded in transforming a relatively straight forward poetic form into a complex and sophisticated genre. Since this series of poems is more than a simple literary parlour game, but constitutes a genre on its own that illustrates, through its major features - stylistic refinement, the use of the Hellenistic techniques of imitatio cum variatione and aemulatio (especially in the Greek tradition, but also in the Latin spring poems) and the blending of literacy and mythological allusions (especially in Horace's spring poems) - typical aspects of Classical poetry, the analysis undertaken in this dissertation gives the Greek and Latin spring poems the critical attention they fully deserve.</p>