>>24849081
The fall of effortposting is one of the saddest things about /lit/.
To me, poetry is a mix of two things - music (rhythm, tempo, metre, alliteration, rhymes) and information density - just how much interpretative power can you put in each little word. Some poets focus more on one than the other, with Shakespeare being arguably the perfect balance between the two.
Faust is a display of virtuosity - Goethe jumps freely between different styles and genres (the Helen segment is a classic example) - mixed with heavy symbolic and interpretative difficulty. Is Faust's final speech (He only earns both freedom and existence / Who must reconquer them each day. [...] My path on earth, the trace I leave within it / Eons untold cannot impair.) meant to be sincere or ironic? Is his redemption earned or unearned? And the whole classical walpurgisnacht segment is one great filter. It's one of the strangest books I've ever read, matched only by Melville's Pierre and Ulysses.
Homer, if poorly handled, can feel very flat. There's a lot of formulaic and repetitive elements, especially in the Iliad. He requires a fine poet's touch, and the more popular translations (Fagles, Wilson) seem to trade his poetic spirit for prosaic readability. Which is important for students and laymen, but I think their translation loses too much of Homer's power.
Fitzgerald to me is the most touching, Merrill the most musical and Lattimore the grandest in its diction:
>Fitzgerald
Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another— the Lord Marshal
Agamémnon, Atreus’ son, and Prince Akhilleus.
>Merrill
Sing now, goddess, the wrath of Achilles the scion of Peleus,
ruinous rage which brought the Achaians uncounted afflictions;
many the powerful souls it sent to the dwelling of Hades,
those of the heroes, and spoil for the dogs it made their bodies,
plunder for all of the birds, and the purpose of Zeus was accomplished-
sing from the time when first stood hostile, starting the conflict,
Atreus' scion, the lord of the people, and noble Achilles.
>Lattimore
Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilles
and its devastation, which put pains thousand-fold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
