Why read Poets In A Landscape?

Book cover of Poets In A Landscape

Book description

Gilbert Highet was a legendary teacher at Columbia University, admired both for his scholarship and his charisma as a lecturer. Poets in a Landscape is his delightful exploration of Latin literature and the Italian landscape. As Highet writes in his introduction, “I have endeavored to recall some of the greatest…

Explore

Topics

Genres

Poetry

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Poets In A Landscape as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

John F. Drinkwater

Author

As the Annals opened my eyes to Roman history, Highet’s book opened them to Latin poetry and the Italian countryside. Still at school, still doing only basic Latin, not Classics, and still to travel outside the U.K., but very interested in English poetry, Highet’s introduction to Catullus, Virgil, Propertius, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and Juvenal revealed a whole new world to me.

Highet’s autobiographical interpretation of their works is now very much out of date, but profusely illustrated with fine photographs, his book presented them to me as real people living in and influenced by real landscapes. I was also taken…

From John's list on getting to grips with Roman imperial history.

Joel Lobenthal

Author

Classics scholar Highet supplies a tour de force of evocation, placing great poets of Ancient Rome in geographic as well as literary contexts. He explores their physical and imaginative habitats, visiting the regions of Italy from which they originated.

He analyzes their character and their poetry, drawing direct parallels that today may be considered slightly dubious by the scholarly community. And so what?

From Joel's list on biographies that expand the parameters of biography.