The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

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.