The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius (review)

Volk's monograph seeks an understanding of ancient didactic poetry through both a general discussion of its characteristics and a close look at four examples of Latin didactic. It is difficult to arrive at a strict definition of didactic. Since there was no consensus thereof in antiquity, modern scholarship will never allow it to be considered a separate legitimate genre. Perhaps the difficulty also arises from the different ways in which we perceive one work versus another. Is Lucretius to be taken seriously because he is teaching us philosophy, but Nicander not because wild beasts are not so lofty a subject? Volk grapples with these issues and offers what she sees as distinct features of didactic, later locating them in the four didactic works at hand.

In her brief introduction Volk outlines her methodology, her position on certain issues, her definitions for a few key terms, and specific plans for each chapter. She then sets out in the first two chapters to work through her theories of the poetics of didactic, "poetics" being defined by her here as "what the poem has to say about its being poetry or about poetry in general" (2). In chapter 1, Volk begins her study with an examination of what she terms "self-conscious" poetry. This idea, though not reserved solely for didactic, will help to build her theories of the poetics of didactic throughout the book. Chapter 2 is much more extensive, being a survey of ancient didactic poetry and ancient views on didactic poetry and spelling out what she believes to be four particular features of didactic, in her words: explicit didactic intent; the teacher-student constellation; poetic self-consciousness; and poetic simultaneity (40). These four features refer, respectively, to the premise of teaching a particular subject, the presence of the persona of both a teacher and a student, the reference of the poet/speaker to the work as a poem, and the idea that the act of teaching takes place as the poem goes along.

In chapters 3 through 6 Volk treats, in one chapter each, Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, Vergil's Georgics, Ovid's Ars Amatoria, and Manilius' Astronomica. While pointing out how each of these works fits her picture of didactic, she emphasizes something significant about each one. She finds Lucretius' treatment of Epicurean philosophy to be innovative in its presentation. In her examination of Vergil, Volk provides an analysis of the place of the Georgics in the poet's "career," claiming that the work can be seen not just as the middle step towards the great achievement that is the Aeneid, but that it is a creation carefully chosen by the poet, with a rich and varied literary history from which to draw. In chapter 5 Volk sees Ovid's poems as successful in that his pupils are shown to have learned the subject matter by the end of the work. Finally, in the sixth chapter Volk explores the idea of poetic self-consciousness in Manilius, who, coming at the end of the didactic tradition, claims that the cosmos, or fate itself (his subject matter), compelled him to compose his work.

Following these four chapters on the individual poets, Volk offers a few pages of conclusive remarks. She restates her theories on the poetic features of didactic and how they are most visibly manifest in each poet.

A final observation: each chapter, as well the introduction and conclusion, begins with two brief quotations, sometimes ancient, sometimes modern, which serve to whet the reader's appetite before delving into the meat of that section. Volk's own use of a didactic technique, perhaps? An effective one, I think. In sum, Volk's work provides much for the reader of didactic and Latin poetry in general, most successfully so, as her writing is refreshingly straightforward while her arguments are sophisticated and thought-provoking.