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alee_grrlToday was the last day of our QUILTBAG poetry celebration week over at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
poetree, and I was happy to share some of my own experiences and favorite poems. You can read the entry here.
That post describes how my introduction to Catullus, an ancient Roman poet, and Sappho, an ancient Greek poet, broadened my horizons as a freshman in college. The experience of studying the poems of Catullus also had one additional side effect: unintentionally scaring the crap out of my roommate.
As part of our final we had to actually declaim one of the poems in proper meter and style (as the poems were often publicly declaimed as a form of publication during the days of the Roman Republic). The style of reading was very different from reading a modern poem, which often leaves the emphasis and speed up to the reader. Instead there was a very specific speed and rhythm to be used. The effect is almost song like (think Gregorian chants), and requires a lot of practice to get right. We had to recite the poem from memory to a tape recorder as part of the final, so there was some serious worry involved alongside all the prep. I was even dreaming about it. I was self-conscious enough that I wasn't practicing around others, so my roommate had no idea that I was working on this.
Early one morning my roommate woke me up. She was rather freaked out. Apparently I woke her up when I set up in bed, chanted a long bit of Latin, and fell back in bed. She must have seen the Exorcist recently as she said she had been waiting for my head to start spinning around. It took a bit to reassure her that no, I wasn't possessed merely worried about my upcoming final. Though I do have to admit that if my roommate woke me up by sitting up in bed and spouting Latin, I'd probably scream too. We had a good laugh over the whole incident.
poetree, and I was happy to share some of my own experiences and favorite poems. You can read the entry here.That post describes how my introduction to Catullus, an ancient Roman poet, and Sappho, an ancient Greek poet, broadened my horizons as a freshman in college. The experience of studying the poems of Catullus also had one additional side effect: unintentionally scaring the crap out of my roommate.
As part of our final we had to actually declaim one of the poems in proper meter and style (as the poems were often publicly declaimed as a form of publication during the days of the Roman Republic). The style of reading was very different from reading a modern poem, which often leaves the emphasis and speed up to the reader. Instead there was a very specific speed and rhythm to be used. The effect is almost song like (think Gregorian chants), and requires a lot of practice to get right. We had to recite the poem from memory to a tape recorder as part of the final, so there was some serious worry involved alongside all the prep. I was even dreaming about it. I was self-conscious enough that I wasn't practicing around others, so my roommate had no idea that I was working on this.
Early one morning my roommate woke me up. She was rather freaked out. Apparently I woke her up when I set up in bed, chanted a long bit of Latin, and fell back in bed. She must have seen the Exorcist recently as she said she had been waiting for my head to start spinning around. It took a bit to reassure her that no, I wasn't possessed merely worried about my upcoming final. Though I do have to admit that if my roommate woke me up by sitting up in bed and spouting Latin, I'd probably scream too. We had a good laugh over the whole incident.
