For Lucasta With Rue: A Collection of Poems by A. E. Housman, Q. Horatius Flaccus, and Others

by Peter V. Jones (Editor)

89 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Peter Jones (sometimes credited as Peter V. Jones) is a former lecturer in Classics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, a writer and journalist. Jones has regularly written on Classics for major newspapers, and was awarded the MBE in 1983. He is a Cambridge graduate.

Jones' popular work has been focused on introducing new generations to Ancient Rome and Greece, from newspaper columns to crossword collections, popular non-fiction, and charitable organisations devoted to helping keep Classics subjects in schools.

Reviews

[Alasdair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this was a treat. Admittedly, it's a niche audience - facing pages present pairs of poems, English and Latin. The English is mostly Housman, the Latin mostly Horace (and with no translation, but there's no reason you couldn't look up a translation, as Horace isn't always easy even for the best of us). But it works spectacularly, as each poet is illuminated by the implicit comparison with the very different character of the other. There is no comment or analysis, just the juxtaposing of poems as the whim of the compiler took him. And Antony Rowe's story is remarkable too - snogged Grace Kelly in the back of a car, then went to war as a submarine officer, where he learned all these poems by heart between watches. Then he put them together as this volume as a present for his friends. So, romantic heart-throb, war hero, poetry scholar, and centre of an enviably cultured social circle.