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Some Helpful Notes on Reading Latin Poetry from Cantator:

After listening to a variety of recordings of Latin verse I offer these observations and suggestions regarding reading Latin verse aloud.

1) Learn to read poetry out loud in your own language. This is emphatically non-trivial, and if you want to be good performer you'll have to practice recitation just like any other performer in any other art. Just because you understand well what you read, don't assume you can read it well out loud without practice, and just because you can talk doesn't automatically mean you can recite. Learn to recognize and articulate poetic effects and intentions (another non-trivial task). Basically, if you can't do poetry well in your own language you're probably not going to recite Latin poetry convincingly either. But take hope, there's probably a lot more recorded work in your own language than there is in Latin, so your models are much closer at hand, with far less controversy regarding matters of pronunciation and other details.

2) Study the available pedagogical material regarding Latin verse recitation, study it intently, and jettison it as soon as feasible. The closer you try to adhere to rules, the further you'll drift from an expressive reading. Nevertheless, you will need to consider, assimilate, and come to your own conclusion regarding such matters as accent, pitch, and even quantity. Have no fear, the listeners who know what to listen for will also know whether you've really done this work.

3) Listen to the many recordings made by others. You'll quickly see that there is little agreement among scholars regarding accurate pronunciation, but you must try to glean what is useful from their attempts (as future students will do with yours). When all is said and done, the descriptions from the grammarians are like attempts to describe a painting in words. While the attempt may be praiseworthy, it can never suffice for the painting itself. In the absence of audio recordings, we are merely making more-or-les informed guesses. That's okay, don't take it all too seriously, just try to do the best you can with the available materials and hope that Virgil and Ovid never return in the flesh. I shiver to think what they'd say about my own efforts, but that won't stop me from making them.

4) Record yourself, listen to your recordings, and share them with others. We are all learners when it comes to this, as Latin phonology is a relatively new field. Your recordings may provide a clue for another student, we can all help each other. Don't fear criticism, and remember that Latin comes alive most fully for us when we try to recreate and experience the rhythms of its splendid poetry and prose. Those rhythms are in fact the very internal rhythms of the Romans themselves, and by reading their words out loud we connect with them through time through the lively medium of sound.


Some personal pet-peeve hobby-horses:

Sing-songiness: A no-no.

Monotony: The opposite of the above. Maybe even more irritating.

Hammered stops at line-ends: Oh for goodness sake, even the Greeks understood the concept of enjambment. If you want to ruin one of the most musical effects of quantitative verse just be sure to hammer the end-stops.

Inattention to clauses: English speakers will have trouble with this until they've learned how to *listen* to Latin. I might extrapolate and suggest that you'll read Latin verse better as you improve your ability to hear and think in the language. Some poets are easier than others: Horace can be especially difficult, yet those very difficulties contain some of his most artistic effects.