Author: Christopher Pearse Cranch

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-25

Total Pages: 571

ISBN-13: 9781330181287

Excerpt from The Aeneid of Virgil: Translated Into English Blank Verse In translation of the great Roman epic here offered to the public, I have endeavored to fulfil two necessary requirements: first, to render the original Latin as literally and concisely into pure idiomatic English as could be consistent with strict metrical form; and, secondly, to make it, as ably as I could, a poem, retaining somewhat of the spirit of the original. I have made an earnest attempt to do what I believe has not yet been successfully done, - a faithful rendering of the Æneid into fluent, poetic, yet compact and carefully constructed blank verse. All the best poetical translations of it into English, hitherto, have been done chiefly in rhymed couplets; and all, whatever their other merits, have failed more or less in fidelity, for the simple reason that they are rhymed. One need only compare the best known version, Dryden's, with the Latin, to see the lamentable transformations the old Roman bard has suffered (even when piloted by a poet) at the hands of that seductive siren, Rhyme. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.