The Last Poems of Ovid | Page 9

_EP_ I vi Ovid describes
at length Graecinus' kindliness of spirit and his closeness to his exiled
friend, while in II vi Ovid admits the justice of the criticism Graecinus
makes of the conduct which led to his exile, but thanks him for his
support and asks for its continuance.
The letters to Tuticanus
The two letters to Tuticanus show a similar dichotomy.
Of the two poems, xii is more personal and more concerned with poetry.
The first eighteen lines are a witty demonstration of the impossibility of
using Tuticanus' name in elegiac verse, while the twelve verses that
follow recall their poetic apprenticeship together. In the final twelve
lines, referring to Tuticanus' senatorial career, Ovid asks him to help
his cause in any way possible.
Poem xiv is far less personal than the earlier epistle. The only mention
of Tuticanus is at the poem's beginning:
Haec tibi mittuntur quem sum modo carmine questus
non aptum

numeris nomen habere meis,
in quibus, excepto quod adhuc
utcumque ualemus,
nil te praeterea quod iuuet inuenies.
The bulk of the poem is a defense against charges raised by some of the
Tomitans that he has defamed them in his verse. Ovid answers that he
was complaining about the physical conditions at Tomis, not the people,
to whom he owes a great debt. It is characteristic of the fourth book of
the _Ex Ponto_ that Ovid complains less of his exile than in his earlier
verse from exile; this poem furnishes the most explicit demonstration
that the years spent in exile and the dwindling likelihood of recall has
made Ovid reach an accommodation with his new conditions of life.
The topic of the poem clearly has no relation to Tuticanus; Professor R.
J. Tarrant points out to me Ovid's use of the same technique in some of
the _Amores_, such as I ix (_Militat omnis amans_), and II x, to
Graecinus on loving two women at once, where there is no apparent
connection between the addressee and the subject of the poem.
Professor E. Fantham notes that the bulk of xiv could even have been
written before Ovid chose Tuticanus as its addressee.
Other letters to poets
Three other poems in the book are addressed to poets. In all of them
poetry itself is a primary subject.
The letter to Severus
The second poem in the book, addressed to the epic poet Severus,
opens with a contrast of the situations of the two poets. The main body
of the poem is concerned with the difficulty of composing under the
conditions Ovid endures at Tomis, and the comfort that he even so
derives from pursuing his old calling. The poem is well constructed and
the language vivid. A particularly fine example of the use Ovid makes
of differing levels of diction is found at 35-38:
excitat auditor studium, laudataque uirtus
crescit, et immensum gloria
calcar habet.
hic mea cui recitem nisi flauis scripta Corallis,


quasque alias gentes barbarus Hister obit?
The emotional height of the tricolon, where Ovid describes poetic
inspiration, gives way to a comparatively prosaic distich where he
explains that the conditions necessary for inspiration do not exist at
Tomis.
At the poem's conclusion Ovid reverts to Severus, asking that he send
Ovid some recent piece of work.
The letter to Albinovanus Pedo
In the tenth poem of the book, poetry is not the main subject; instead,
Ovid describes the hardships he endures at Tomis, and then describes at
length the reasons the Black Sea freezes over. Towards the end of the
letter, however, he explains why he is writing a poem to Albinovanus
on this seemingly irrelevant topic[8]. The language recalls the poem to
Severus:
'detinui' dicam 'tempus, curasque fefelli;
hunc fructum praesens attulit
hora mihi.
abfuimus solito dum scribimus ista dolore,
in mediis nec
nos sensimus esse Getis.'
[Footnote 8: However, Albinovanus' poem on Germanicus' campaigns
may have had a strong geographical element; as Professor E. Fantham
notes, Ovid may here be appealing to this interest, or demonstrating
competitive skill in handling the topic.]
(67-70)
In the poem's concluding lines he links his own situation with the
_Theseid_ Albinovanus is engaged on: just as Theseus was faithful, so
Albinovanus should be faithful to Ovid.
The letter to Gallio
This letter is remarkable for its economy of structure, and indeed is so
short as to seem rather perfunctory. Only twenty-two lines in length, it

is a letter of consolation addressed to Gallio on the death of his wife. In
the first four lines Ovid apologizes for not having written to him earlier.
Ovid's exile serves as a bridge to the main topic of the poem:
atque utinam rapti iactura laesus amici
sensisses ultra quod quererere
nihil
(5-6)
The remainder of the poem consists of the ingenious interweaving of
various commonplaces of consolation. The poem is a good illustration
of the secondary importance Ovid often