A beginning sketch of this article got posted and for that I apologize.k
I’ll post a finished article in a couple of weeks.
Your forbearance is appreciated.
Reading the Aeneid
Published
Looking back at the cherished books of a lifetime of reading.
Books Matter 
Years ago I took a refresher course in Latin at night after work. Lucretius, Catullus, a bit of Horace. One evening the professor assigned us the task of reciting from memory the first twenty lines of “De Rerum Natura”, with attention to meter and elision. In the spirit of instruction, he himself recited the lines from memory. Beautiful. Then, all warmed up, he recited the first fifty lines or so of the Aeneid. It was like spoken music.
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Yes, the Latin classics are beautiful. Once on a tour of Greece I raised a glass of wine at dinner and started to recite Horace’s ode on the death of Cleopatra, which begins “Nunc est bibendum . . .” (Νow’s the time to drink . . “) I knew only the first couple of stanzas, though. A classics professor from Venice was sitting next to me and he recited it — the whole ode. It not only sounded beautiful as he recited it — it sounded right.
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