Reading in Latin of selected poems by Catullus and Horace. Class time will be devoted to translating a relatively small number of poems (with attention to features typically “lost in translation” as well as more readily translatable effects of figuration and rhetoric) and to thinking together about how these poems speak both to their own social context and historical moment and to ours.  To assist our experiments in criticism and translation, we will frequently dip into the critical and poetic reception of this poetry.  

Requirements include ongoing classwork (including frequent short quizzes) (25%); two essays (4-6 pp.; 25%); midterm exam (20%); and cumulative final exam (30%).  In the course of the semester you will also be required to memorize 12 lines of poetry.