Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Catullus
- The Cambridge Companion to Catullus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Situating Catullus
- Chapter 2 Literary Liaisons
- Chapter 3 Catullan Intertextuality
- Chapter 4 Gender and Sexuality
- Chapter 5 Catullan Themes
- Chapter 6 Language and Style
- Chapter 7 Catullus and Metre
- Chapter 8 Catulli Carmina
- Chapter 9 Catullus and Augustan Poetry
- Chapter 10 Rewriting Catullus in the Flavian Age
- Chapter 11 The Manuscripts and Transmission of the Text
- Chapter 12 Editions and Commentaries
- Chapter 13 Catullus in the Renaissance
- Chapter 14 Catullus and Poetry in English since 1750
- Abbreviations and Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Chapter 7 - Catullus and Metre
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 April 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Catullus
- The Cambridge Companion to Catullus
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Situating Catullus
- Chapter 2 Literary Liaisons
- Chapter 3 Catullan Intertextuality
- Chapter 4 Gender and Sexuality
- Chapter 5 Catullan Themes
- Chapter 6 Language and Style
- Chapter 7 Catullus and Metre
- Chapter 8 Catulli Carmina
- Chapter 9 Catullus and Augustan Poetry
- Chapter 10 Rewriting Catullus in the Flavian Age
- Chapter 11 The Manuscripts and Transmission of the Text
- Chapter 12 Editions and Commentaries
- Chapter 13 Catullus in the Renaissance
- Chapter 14 Catullus and Poetry in English since 1750
- Abbreviations and Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Summary
Among the many accolades that critics bestow on Catullus, one is often absent: metrical revolutionary. This is strange, for we know of no other Roman poet who combined so many poetic forms across so many genres for so many purposes. In what, by other standards, was a brief poetic career – perhaps not even a decade long – we find no fewer than fourteen different metrical forms, two of which may well have been his own innovation. And far from this being an incoherent medley of disparate metres for variety’s sake, it emerges as a coherent and inventive collection curated by a masterful hand. The purpose of this chapter is to survey the range of Catullus’ deployment of metrical forms and to demonstrate the nuanced flair of his practice.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Catullus , pp. 143 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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