Wood: Statius's Silvae and the Poetics of Genius

This paper explores the various meanings of silva (and of the Greek Ïlh) as a more robust notion of poetic value than has been accepted. Ingenium is a favourite word of Statius meaning both innate aptness and aptitude. Under the concept of ingenium, there is an absence of a sharply drawn division between art and nature. The concept of silvae and ingenium come together in Silvae 2.3, an allegory of the virtuosity of Statius's poetics—of the craft of writing poetry and of the genius that makes it endure.