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

A CRITIQUE OF THE ACADEMIC DICHOTOMY
thing very like the effect which he has disclaimed. So here again, in the ironic
structure of the recusatio, two contrasting styles co-exist. It only remains to
add that the event which the poet was so superbly unfit to celebrate was the
return of Augustus from Gaul.
Finally, the two styles may be related by placing two contrasting poems side
by side. Odes 1.37 is an ode of triumph on the destruction of Cleopatra. Nearly
six centuries earlier Alcaeus had cried exultantly vOv xpil ueOua&ny ' Now's the
time to get drunk. . .for Myrsilus is dead.' So when Horace begins with nunc
est bibendum he is not only 'acknowledging a shared culture' (to use Nisbet—
Hubbard's excellent phrase) but also asserting a kindred political experience:
a tyrant is dead. Lines 5—21 present the dissolute, drunken, power-mad queen
of Octavian's propaganda. As we read about her, however, we should not use
our historical sources to censure Horace's inaccuracy; for he was not reporting
the battle of Actium as it actually took place, but rather reflecting the general
mood of triumph and delirious relief. Then, as in Odes 2.1, die poet's initial and
spontaneous reaction gives way to something altogether deeper and more humane,
and in 11. 21-32 we are shown the defeated Cleopatra, determined to avoid
humiliation, calmly taking her own life like a Roman Stoic. Both moods are
accommodated in the grand style with its glorious effects of sound and diction.
Some of Horace's most dignified 'public' compositions end on a quiet note,
e.g. 3.5 and 4.2; once or twice he checks an ode apparently in mid flight and
brings it back to the level on which he normally meets the reader, e.g. 2.1 and
3.3. An analogous effect is produced by placing the very short ode Persicos odi
after 1.37 and using it to round off the book. Though not strictly a sympotic
poem it is related to 1.37 by the theme of drinking and by die anti-oriental
sentiment. Also, in its own way, it is artfully contrived. For example, the first
stanza deprecates Persian elaborateness, garlands woven on philyra (a Greek
word, meaning lime bast), and the search for late roses; but it contains no
negative words. The second affirms the sufficiency of myrtle (simplici myrtd)
and the pleasure of sheltered relaxation, but it is couched entirely in negatives.
Yet the contrasts widi 1.37 are more obvious and important. Instead of complex
periods we have two sapphic stanzas with short asyndetic sentences; the literary
ancestry is found in Anacreon and Hellenistic epigram, not in Alcaeus or
Pindar; and after die jubilant celebration of Cleopatra's defeat we are brought
back to the Horatian norm by the picture of the poet enjoying a quiet drink
in his summerhouse.
In this section we have noted how small light poems can be structurally
complex, how within a given ode the style may shift from one level to anodier,
how parodies use solemnity for comic effect, how in a recusatio the grand style
can be disavowed and employed at the same time, and how a contrast can be
exploited by juxtaposition.
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