Vergil Redux: Transitional elements from Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics adapted by 21st century poets.
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Date
2020-08
Authors
Siegel, Abigail
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Abstract
This thesis examines the ways in which three 21st century poets adapt Vergilian
themes and text. There has been scant study of 21st century Vergilian poets, and so I
take this opportunity to discuss such poets as a supplement to studies of previous poets
in previous centuries. I analyze the 21st century poets’ uses of Vergil’s transitional
themes from the Eclogues and Georgics, specifically ideas of the Golden Age, uses of
transitional characters, and decline of the pastoral. The first chapter discusses Vergil’s
uses of both the agricultural and Hesiodic Golden Ages, which the modern poets adapt
and make relevant in 21st century contexts. The second chapter highlights three
characters from Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics, Alexis, Orpheus, and Hermes, and
analyzes how they are adapted from Vergil as heralds of either the Golden Age or
decline. The third chapter focuses on the decline of the pastoral, and specifically how the
modern poets use Vergil’s imagery of the evicted farmers of the Eclogues to illustrate the
decline of the 21st century landscape in socio-political and agricultural terms, as well as
the decline of pastoral literature. I conclude this thesis by discussing the future of
Vergilian pastoral literature in the contexts of other transitional themes and authors.
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Keywords
Virgil, Pastoral poetry, Classics, Vergil, Roman poetry, Classical reception, Contemporary poetry