Sound, Sense, and Rhythm

This text is concerned with the way we read - or rather, imagine we are listening to ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The author argues that an understanding of the effects of word order and meter is vital for appreciating the meaning of classical poetry which was composed for listening audiences.

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This work concerns the way we read - or rather imagine we are listening to - ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Through penetrating analysis Mark Edwards shows how an understanding of the effects or word order and meter is vital for appreciating the meaning of classical poetry, composed for listening audiences. The first of four chapters examines Homer's emphasis of certain words by their positioning; a passage from the "Iliad" is analyzed and a poem of Tennyson illustrates English parallels. The second considers Homer's techniques of disguising the break in the narrative when changing a scene's location or characters, to maintain his audience's attention. In the third we learn, partly through an English translation matching the rhythm, how Aeschylus chose and adapted meters to arouse listeners' emotions. The final chapter examines how Latin poets, particularily Propertius, infused their language with ambiguities and multiple meanings. An appendix examines the use of classical meters by twentieth-century American and English poets.
Based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 1998, this book will aid classicists and their students in the possibilites of the la