"DIVINE POET"

Evening Post, Issue 50, 27 August 1935, Page 14

"DIVINE POET"

THE CAREER OF VIRGIL

HIS PERSISTENT INFLUENCE

MILTON'S TKTBUTE

The "divine poet" of Rome, Publius Vergilius Maro, whom we call Virgil, is one of the few poets who has never I been lost'sight of, even in the Dark Ages, says a writer in the Melbourne "Age." While he still lived his work became a text book in the schools, and the ■ melody and -beauty of his writing a model and an influence. He is "a sctioolbook for'youth, a treasure I house for-mature. appreciation, a model !for artists," for'as Newman so beautifully expresses it, he gives "utterance as to the-voice of Nature herself, to that pain'antf weariness, yet hope, of better things,'which is l the -experience of her children in every time."

Virgil was,bom in Mantua in 70 8.C., and lived throughout that stimulating and exciting ,time ithat saw the downfall of the Roman* Republic -and the formation^ of the' Roman r Empire. His father • was- a -thriving yeomanfarmer, .who , made, the greater part of his living from forestry and beekeeping., Of his,mother nothing is kno\yn. excepting'her'name, Magia Polla, and this—in- so,-igreat,; veneration was Virgil held—became distorted in medieval times, and assumed a-mystical signifi-

cance, so that Virgil himself came to be regarded as a-miracle worker like Merlin in thelegendof Arthur. When he was twelve years of age he was sent to school at Cremona, and four years, later went on to the more advanced school at" Milan. Thence he passed, when he was in his nineteenth year, to Rome, the centre of studies of the Latin-speaking world, where he joined a brilliant group of young.poets, For ten years we know little of his life excepting that1 he studied widely and read deeply. His father died, and he had sufficient patrimony to live the life of a'vscholar,, to study and travel, and devote himself to philosophical and, historical studies. His ; great shyness and a certain .rusticity of manner which" he retained'■throughout life, together with- his delicate physical health, determined the path of the scholar rather than the soldier—the only other avenue open to the youth of that.'tim'e.^ Certainly .within these years he learned the works of earlier Roman poets," Catullus and Lucretius, who were 'responsible for wonderful development in Latin poetry, and the .Greeks from"; whose influence Latin grew so greatly. FRESH MFE. In 37,b!c'. Virgil, published tlie collection, of "Eclogues," selected pastoral poems which, breaking through the bounds of the elaborately scholarly and rather., artificial conventions of Latin verse of ."tha't 'period, introduced a fresh y life-and" graceful tenderness hitherto" unknown;.' brought out in the Lathi language melodious never heard !in it-before. By-_perfection of structure and-execution, accompanied as .th'eyv were, by "the most refreshing charm,-the-poems brought him instant recognition..^ At- .once the poet was famous; -to '■ his •'. great, embarrassment he w'as,.cheered when •'he'entered the] theatre. These Ipoe'ms established him i as ,the laureate^ of the- new regime

gradually' setting up in Italy, and through them :.he was introduced to Maecenas,, the ..Minister for Home Affairs, arid to the court of Augustus.

For' the next seven years Virgil, L through"; the encouragement and under some pressure - from' Maecenas, worked -at the. "Georgics." Men were, returning from? the civil wars, and, un- 1 trained for the -.life of the land, were j crowding, in, the cities, crying,: "Panis ' et circenses." The farms, orchards, ■ and vineyards that had made of Italy a garden, andhad maintained a hardy ' and healthy .peasantry, were left un-1 cared for by landlords, or inhabited by J • migratory troops of herdsmen and shepherds, who were slaves and half savages. 'Discontent,' a craving for excitement; and idleness were rife. • A NATIONAL POEM. To check this.process small holdings were r\cr*ea'ted' and subsidised, and the disbanded; armies.were settled all over Italy in agricultural colonies. Scientific farming,was. studied and taught, and to "Virgil .fell the task of writing a national- poem which would recall the traditions jof Eoman life, and would make - a moral, as, well as material," appeal to the people. "The praises of _,Italy" are the central motive of the book. He presents a "divine country," not a.fanciful paradise, but a land ;■ where, in spite of frost-bound winters, parching summers, storm, drought, incessant toil, there is prosperous: peace-, a with Nature, a deep sympathy and a sense of wonder -and mystery. towards all- life. There-are,'only-2000 lines in this poem, whichv'Virgil.-.-', took seven years to write; Old "Virgil, who would wiilo ten lines they say At dawn,!arid!lavish' all the'ROlden day To.mako them ; .wealthier in his reader's ewes, says Tennyson, who, of all recent English- poets, was most swayed by Virgil's influence. Tennyson it is who has most ' nearly reproduced the

cadences and charm of the Georgics in the lines—

Thou that slngcst wheat and 'woodland, tithe and vineyard, hivo and horse and herd; All the charm of all tho Muses oftcu flowering iv a lonely word.

During his early years Virgil is supposed to have written three shorter poems, the Ciris, the Moretum, and the Culex. He also attempted to write a historical epic, and.now again, in the prologue of the .third book of the Georgicsi he mentions that he is approaching a far greater task. And he set himself to write a poem which 1 would embody , the pageantry of Roman history and vindicate the unity of Roman Italy; would have vital human interest, and find expression in romantic adventure; would ■ exalt, the new regime and :wbuld; lift itself into the higher sphere of philosophy and religion. ' NEAR DESPAIR. At times his difficulties brought him near to despair. "I think myself almost mad to have embarked upon it," he wrote in a letter to the Emperor Augustus, fragments of; which have.been preserved. .In the. poem he told the story of Aeneas, the founder of Rome, the capture and fall of Troy; Aeneas's wanderings over the seven seas, the founding of the city and the setting ,up of a new kingdom. To write it he studied deeply Greek, the earlier Latin poets, history, archaeology, science—pouring into it all his thought and accumulated learning, ■so that, from being a national epic, the Aerieid became something greater, an epic of civilisation arid humanity. The poet spent ten years on its composition, but thought it | still unfinished when he set put in 19' B.C. for a short visit to Greece, from which he returned only to die. On his death bed he requested that it should bejdestroyed, -but Augustus,: forbade

this, and ordered that It should be published just as he had left it. Virgil's poetry was first used in a secondary school in 26 8.C.; and within a century after his death came to be regarded as a Bible, from which men sought guidance.1 His influence can be I traced in the works of Bede and Cyneiwulf, in Chaucer—

Glory and honour, Virgil Mantuan, Be to thy name 1 and I shall as I. can Follow thy lantern as Uibu gost.bliorn: —in passages of Wordsworth's Prelude and 'in Keats's'Hyperion .'and Lama. Matthew Arnold in'

The Virgilian cry. The sense p£ tears, in mortal - things.. echoes the throbbing music of Virgil's wistful phrase, "la'crimae rerum," the tears of things. Such lovely phrases and half lines .are , .frequent-—the shadowihess of fame; the . flickering light of. an inextinguishable hope; the longing for rest; the-sorrow of departing and the keen grief over-the' departed. Milton modelled "Paradise" Lost"' on the "Aeneid," drawing from it not only the epic structure/ the ment of rhythm, phrasing- and diction, but at times an almost .literal .translation. "Thick as the autumnal' leaves that strew the - woods in Valambrosa" — "Quam multaih silvus auturnrii'frigore; primo lapsa cadunt folia," .is a frequently quoted instance.' -

So Virgil's-work comes-to; us, not only with its original virtue and charm, but with ,the • addition of the vision and experiences of the great among the English poets—mot -only" a classic, but a human document.