The Cleopatra Ode

Guidelines: Reading poetry is tricky business. Theres 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. Horaces 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: 
Username: [email protected]
Password: Yeppi4180!

Textbook 2 (Section & Little Seagull)…
Link: 
Username: [email protected]
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, dont 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?

Nuts and Bolts: Essays should be c. 500-750 words (no need to be 650 exactly as I ordered), and most importantly, make sure to use quotations and close reading to substantiate your argument! Thats absolutely essential to be successful in the assignment. In addition, make sure to develop a specific, concrete argument in answer to these questions. Dont just summarize and recapitulate the prompts.