What kind of “war” is Horace imagining?

Guidelines: Reading poetry is tricky business. There’s a density of language that can make a poem hard to untangle. But that makes it a great first writing assignment for your time in MMW 12. Horace’s Cleopatra Ode celebrates the end of the Civil War and Augustus’ victory at the Battle of Actium. At first, it reads as a simple celebration of victory and of Augustus. But, the poem is interesting because it quickly complicates that opening premise. And in addition, it offers a very “revisionist” account of the war between Antony and Augustus.

*You will have access to the main poem, “Horace, Cleopatra Ode” by looking at an attached images (only 2 pages; please look at the page number for the order).
*Check out the PDF to look at the second poem, “Res Gestae Divi Augusti”

*Also, please use textbook informations, not the outside sources (you will know which textbook pages to use by looking at an attached images).

You can access to the textbook (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart/ WTWA) by…
Link: https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebookworldstogether6-worldstogether6littleseagull4
Username: yjl005@ucsd.edu
Password: Yeppi4180!

Textbook 2 (Section & Little Seagull)…
Link: https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooklittleseagull4-worldstogether6littleseagull4
Username: yjl005@ucsd.edu
Password: Yeppi4180!

Prompt: In your Critical Analysis, identify one way in which Horace complicates, blurs,
undercuts, or otherwise “messes with” the simple celebration of Augustus’ victory that is
the theme promised by the opening lines (“Now drink!”). There are several lines of inquiry you could take (choose one, don’t cover them all):

a) How does our view of Cleopatra change over the course of the poem?
b) When is Augustus present in the poem, and when is he not present? Is this poem
really “about” Augustus at all?
c) The poem starts with “celebratory drinking.” How do drinking and its connotations change as the poem proceeds?
d) What are the similes and metaphors used in the poem, and how do they color a template in which Augustus = good, and Cleopatra = bad?
e) The poem celebrates the end of the civil war between Antony and Augustus. Where is Antony in this poem? What kind of “war” is Horace imagining?

That’s absolutely essential to be successful in the assignment. In addition, make sure to develop a specific, concrete argument in answer to these questions. Don’t just summarize and recapitulate the prompts.

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