Epilogue: Augustans and Moderns

The artistry of the Augustans is further exemplified in a series of comparisons juxtaposing an Augustan with a later translation. A passage of Homer translated by Robert Lowell is compared to Pope, with an added contrast from Cowper's version. Dryden's Virgil is put alongside translations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Augustan Art of Poetry
Main Author Sowerby, Robin
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Oxford University Press 26.01.2006
Subjects
Wordsworth
Hughes
Pope
Johnson
Addison
Cowper
Dryden
Augustan achievement
Day Lewis
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Summary:The artistry of the Augustans is further exemplified in a series of comparisons juxtaposing an Augustan with a later translation. A passage of Homer translated by Robert Lowell is compared to Pope, with an added contrast from Cowper's version. Dryden's Virgil is put alongside translations by Wordsworth and C. Day Lewis. Lowell's Juvenal is compared with the versions of Dryden and Dr Johnson. Hughes' Ovid is contrasted with first Addison then with Dryden. Finally, an extract from Dryden's version of an ode of Horace, compared with an earlier and a modern version, is adduced as a touchstone for the Augustan achievement for its formal elegance. Its polished refinement and its metrical harmony harnessed to give perfect expression to what Pope called his ‘energy divine’.
ISBN:0199286124
9780199286126
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286126.003.0006