Elegaic poetry can be beautiful or annoying, especially if you don’t have notes to go with the text. Your problem is solved here, in CANEPress’s Roman Elegaic Poetry collection, by Ellen Olmstead and Andrew Schacht (available free to CANE members). In this text, Catullus 76, Tibullus I.1, Propertius 1.16, Ovid, Amores I.9 come complete with vocabulary, notes, questions for the students and much more.

The introduction to each of the poets/poems is excellent and will help the students understand what the poetry is all about. There are translations of each poem as well as subsidiary English and Latin poems, too, which will be of help in the classroom.

Catullus 76 is not an easy poem, but it is easy to get bored with his whining! The authors, however, have put the poem into context, along with other poems, in both English and Latin, that shed light on the style and psychology of Catullus.

Tibullus 1.1 begins with a description of the simple life on the farm, and how much he loves this – all quite conventional. It reminded me of Vergil in its praise of the agricultural realm. Tibullus goes on (and on and on) until, in typical Roman fashion in poetry, he get to his real point – his girlfriend!

Propertius 1.16 uses the theme of the door that is closed to the lover. However, instead of whining, he makes fun of the entire affair! This is a much better way to deal with the topic.

Ovid Amores 1.9 turns the thwarted lover system on its head. Here Ovid says that being a lover is as difficult as being a soldier and there is just as much torment for the one as the other. It’s a clever poem and the discussion about it is very thorough.