Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

THE A ENElD
made people remember them by their service. Thus in some way only dimly
seen virtue in this world is rewarded in the next; the confusion and suffering
and sorrow of our life will be compensated for after death. It is a vague picture,
and not presented with any kind of certainty — the whole of Aeneid 6 is really
a vision personal to Aeneas rather than a confident statement about the hereafter.
It is presented in groping hope, not in the sureness of faith; but it prevents
a poem which is not always serenely confident about the potential
perfection of Rome's Golden Age and which is so deeply preoccupied with
suffering from becoming a poem of pessimism.
6. STYLE AND METRE
It is only possible here to make a few brief remarks about Virgil's style and
metre. His narrative method can be contrasted with that of Homer in a number
of ways: it has less directness and immediacy, but rather aims at density and
elaborate balance 1 in a way appropriate for literary epic, and it is more concerned
with foreshadowing and interweaving: it looks backwards and forwards. It is
essentially a subjective style of narrative 2 in which the author involves himself
and the reader empathetically in the action. This is done in many different
ways: e.g. by elaborating the state of mind or the viewpoint of the character
concerned rather than of the observer (e.g. 4.465 ff., 12.665 ff.); by the use of
apostrophe in moments of particular intensity (e.g. 4.4o8ff., io.5O7ff.); by
'editorial' intrusion into the narrative (4.412, io.5Oiff.). The use of imagery 3
is highly sophisticated, containing correspondences with other parts of the
narrative of such a kind as to illuminate the particular situation or character
involved; this can be seen especially in a study of the similes, 4 where the
imagery often serves not merely to illustrate and strengthen the immediate
narrative but also to make thematic links with the mood and tone of the wider
context (e.g. Aen. i.498ff., 4.69ff., 4.441ft"., I2.4:ff., I2.9o8ff.).
The movement of Virgil's narrative is indeed much less rapid than that of
Homer (Ovid is much nearer to Homer in speed and directness), and a slow,
descriptive and reflective mood is generally thought of as especially characteristic
of Virgil (e.g. 2.6246% 5.8331F., 6.45off., n.8i6ff.). This is basically true,
but what is really remarkable about Virgil's style is its extraordinary variety;
this is what maintains the impetus throughout the length of the poem. He can
be ornate and baroque (i.8iff., 3.5700"., 5.4266°.) or plain and matter-of-fact
(as often in Book 3 or in the ship-race, 5.15iff.); he can be sonorous and
sublime (1.257^, 6-756ff.) or exuberantly mock-heroic (6.385—416). And he
1 See the analysis of Virgil's adaptation of Homer's games in R. D. Williams (i960) Intro, xiiiff.
1 See Otis (1963) passim.
3 See Poschl {\