poetic verses amaze me

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Sofronios
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poetic verses amaze me

Post by Sofronios »

Im not sure where I should put the post
for a reason that this post is a rant rather than an inquiry of both languages

Ive been doing some basic latin and greek for a while,
the material I am choosing are orberg LLPSI and the JACT reading greek.
I am trying to do at least a chapter a day but with LLPSI I am stuck in chapter 34, de arte poetica, of course a chapter about poem.
the problem until this point, after so much re-reading I can acquire Orberg's prose style, but things become foggy when I read the poetic part. The same problem I get when I read section 15 of reading greek, that is taken from the tragic verse of alkestis. My conclusion is, verse reading is far more difficult than prose reading.

well in the long run I think Im going to read caesar and then cicero, because both are prose writings.
For greek my aim is always plato/aristotle, but I think xenophon first then herodotus (NT and LXX wont hurt I think)

I read some post here that Eutropius and Nepos are the easiest latin author that possibly I will put that on my reading list

and I think I wont get to vergilius and homer in my life time

thank you
your novice classics reader that has yet master his basics instructions
ὁ δὲ εἶπε· πῶς γὰρ ἂν δυναίμην, ἐὰν μή τις ὁδηγήσῃ με;
Qui ait : Et quomodo possum, si non aliquis ostenderit mihi ?

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Constantinus Philo
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Re: poetic verses amaze me

Post by Constantinus Philo »

Neither Homer nor Virgil are difficult syntactically speaking, Plato and Cicero are
Semper Fidelis

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: poetic verses amaze me

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

I wouldn't worry too much about easy and hard at this point. For a beginner used to essentially one style, using textbooks with limited vocabulary (both the amount of vocabulary and the semantic range of the words) and textbook perfect constructions, changes in style and usage can be troubling. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it is doable, and you deprive yourself of some amazing reading experience if you avoid poetry. In actuality, Vergil and Homer are not that syntactically complicated, once you get used to the word order, controlled largely by the needs of the meter.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

fitzaudoen
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Re: poetic verses amaze me

Post by fitzaudoen »

Yeah I think you might find poetry turns out to be easier when you reach the intermediate stage. Once you get past the word order, you find the phrasing is pretty repetitive, the content is graphic narrative, and the vocabulary is a pretty fixed stock. A book of the Ovid was the first thing I read without crutches and it was kind of accidental. I just started it expecting to need flip to the english but ended up not needing to really stop until I hit the end. There really isn't anything that happens that you probably haven't been exposed to from learning about hellenic mythology and watching/reading fantasy growing up.

On the other hand, in Cicero, Tacitus, and Livy you a lot of times end up with technical vocabulary pertaining to Roman parliamentary procedure and abstract legal concepts that can be very difficult to pick up from context. Even Caesar you have a few sections where he's explaining in pretty precise terms how to construct military bridges which really isn't any easier to understand in the english translations unless maybe you have a carpentry background.

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