Latin Poetry Honors: Course Description

This course is intended as a continuation of the instruction in Latin poetry begun at the end of the sophomore year. Students need not have been in Latin Prose Honors to enroll in this one. It is intended primarily for juniors, but seniors are equally welcome. Students will read selections from such Latin poets as Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, Juvenal, and Martial, gaining a solid knowledge and appreciation of Latin lyric poetry.
Requirements: approval and signature of previous Latin teacher.
Application must be submitted.

Juniors in Latin Poetry Honors are strongly encouraged to enroll in either The Myth Tradition or The Latin Tradition next year; those who show ability and interest are strongly encouraged to consider AP Latin Literature (Catullus and Ovid) next year. Latin Poetry Honors students are expected to take the National Latin Exam in the spring and are strongly encouraged to take the SAT II in Latin.

READING SYLLABUS
Required Reading
Selections from Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Martial, and Vergil; exact syllabus to be determined.
Optional Reading
Selections from other authors such as Tibullus, Propertius, and Juvenal may also be read, at teacher’s discretion.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Latin Poetry Honors students will be able to …
--read, with appropriate assistance, assigned passages on syllabus
--identify substantives by case form and function
--identify finite and non-finite verb forms and uses
--identify principal types of subordinate constructions
--answer key questions of comprehension and interpretation
--identify figures of speech and literary devices
--identify metrical patterns (dactyl, spondee, elision and ecthlipsis, caesura)
--scan and recite metrically principal meters read (elegaic couplet, Sapphic and Alcaic, hendecasyllabic, dactylic hexameter)

<<--back