Blog Post #? - Looking at Book II

Though Book II has many themes, the prevailing theme is death. His other themes include, aging, moderation, love, Gods, friendship, moving on, seducing, change, virtue, youth, wine, and Rome.

Theme(s) by Poem:

1.     Rome and Death

2.     Moderation

3.     Death and Moderation

4.     Love

5.     Aging

6.     Aging

7.     Aging and Friendship

8.     Seducing

9.     Moving on

10. Change and Moderation

11. Aging and Youth

12. Virtue and Love

13. Death

14. Death

15. Modesty

16. Modesty

17. Death

18. Modesty

19. Bacchus (Gods and Wine)

20. Death

Horace seems to arrange his poetry in two separate ways: the order that they are presented in his life and the subject matter of the following poetry. The subject matter of each poem relates to the poem on either side of it, however this of course has its exceptions. For support of this theory, let’s look at poems 8, 9 and 10. Poem 8 refers to the faithlessness of a seductress, poem 9 refers to the ability to move on, and poem 10 talks about the ever-changing life we have and the value of moderation. Poem 9 has the ability to look back with its theme to poem 8 and look forward to connect with the inevitability of change.

            Two persisting images stood out to me: wine and happiness, flowers and death, and trees and death. The first reference to wine and happiness is in Poem III with reference to things that you should enjoy while you are able to (also included were fragrant oils and flowers). The message is repeated in Poems VII, XI, XIV, XVI, and XIX. Flowers and death can be seen using poems III, XI, and XV (where they symbolize the death (fall) of Rome). Trees and death start to become apparent after his near-death encounter when a tree almost fell onto him (Poem XIII). It is seen again in Poem XIV and XVII.