Three Classical Poets
Sappho, Catullus, and Juvenal
Richard Jenkyns
In this engaging essay Richard Jenkyns shows us how to read three quite different ancient poets. In a close and sensitive reading of Sappho, Catullus, and Juvenal, Jenkyns delineates the uniqueness of the poet's individual voice in relation to poetic traditions. His book constitutes a challenge to the view that one method will suffice for the interpretation of ancient poetry. He seeks to demonstrate that we can have no substitute for flexible and humane judgment, liberated from critical dogma, if we are to understand the great writers of the past. It is Jenkyns' appealing habit to clarify and illustrate his points by drawing analogies from modern and ancient literature. He deploys his wide learning with agility and grace.
Richard Jenkyns is Professor of the Classical Tradition at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. His previous books include The Victorians and Ancient Greece and Dignity and Decadence: Victorian Art and the Classical Inheritance.