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Updated: June 26, 2025
And, putting down Propertius, the acute, sharp face of Trevanion instantly became earnest and attentive. "My dear Mr. Trevanion," said I, with as much steadiness as I could assume, "you have been most kind to me; and out of my own family there is no man I love and respect more." Trevanion. "Humph! Pisistratus.
Catullus copies the Greek rhythm in its details without asking whether these are in accordance with the genius of the Latin language. Horace, by adopting stricter rules, produces a much more harmonious effect. The same is true of Catullus's treatment of the elegiac, as compared with that of Propertius or Ovid.
From his frequent introduction of historical and mythological subjects into his poems, he received the appellation of "the learned." Of all the Latin elegiac poets, Propertius has the justest claim to purity of thought and expression. He often draws his imagery from reading, more than from the imagination, and abounds less in description than sentiment.
"What an escape! How narrowly, as Propertius hath it femininely, `Eripitur nobis jumpridem carus puer. Well was it that thou hadst learnt to swim verily thou must have struggled lustily. `Pugnat in adversas ire natator aquas, yea, lustily for thy life, child. Now, God be praised!"
Impressed with these sentiments, it became an object of importance, in their opinion, to engage the Muses in the service of the imperial authority; on which account, we find Mecaenas tampering with Propertius, and we may presume, likewise with every other rising genius in poetry, to undertake an heroic poem, of which Augustus should be the hero.
But a little while afterwards the restless brain of the poet found the sleep that it desired. At a time when literary criticism was so powerful at Rome, and poetry was ruled by somewhat rigid canons of taste, it is not surprising that more stress was laid on the defects than on the merits of Propertius' poetry.
One is reminded of the fine line of Propertius, in which Cornelia boasts of the blameless union of herself and her husband, Paullus "Viximus insignes inter utramque facem." This is no isolated example.
Partly after the example of Propertius, partly by his own predilection, he kept to the elegiac metre, though he is conscious of its betraying him into occasional frivolous or amatory passages where he ought to be grave.
Thus it is the philosophy of Shakspeare, Byron, Horace, Pope, Moliere, which has put them into every one's hands and hearts while that of Propertius, even of Lucretius, of Cowley, and Shelley, makes us often throw down the book, because it fatigues us with the scholar.
In Propertius, Virgil, and others, we find also traces of this mode of feeling; less of it is found in Ovid, who would have required for that more abundance of heart, and who in his exile at Tomes sorrowfully regrets the happiness that Horace so readily dispensed with in his villa at Tibur. It is in the fundamental idea of poetry that the poet is everywhere the guardian of nature.
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