Sleepless Poets: Catullus and Keats
1974; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1017/s0017383500021690
ISSN1477-4550
Autores Tópico(s)Classical Antiquity Studies
ResumoIt is well known that many poets, from Callimachus ( Anth. Pal. ix. 507) down to those mentioned by Rosamund Harding on pp. 38—9 of her book An Anatomy of Inspiration (Cambridge, 1942), have preferred to compose their works by night. It is perhaps less well known that some poems are or claim to be the result of involuntary insomnia. One example is Catullus 1. Catullus had spent a day composing poetry in the company of his friend, the brilliant young ‘new’ poet Licinius Calvus (lines 1–16): Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi multum lusimus in meis tabellis, ut convenerat esse delicatos: scribens versiculos uterque nostrum ludebat numero modo hoc modo illoc, reddens mutua per iocum atque vinum.
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