Beginning Latin Poetry Reader: 70 Selections from the Great Periods of Roman Verse and Drama

This is a great compilation, with selections and notes aimed at intermediate students with a vocabulary of about 750 words. If you've graduated from Wheelock's Latin, or are at any rate close to that standard, this is perfect for you. There is plenty of information on the poetic metres, and some (minimal) background on each of the selections. Thrown in as well are various short essays, for example on book production in Roman times, full translations for all selections, plus a decent vocab section at the back. Everything has been designed for the student who is eager to learn and to appreciate and enjoy the texts. The downside is that, with so many authors selected, the passages from each are short (about 40 lines from Plautus for example). There are, however, about 30 pages from Vergil, all in the form of similarly short snippets (ie. about 40 lines). Personally I prefer longer selections, but that is down to personal taste. You can use the excerpts to build your Latin vocab, and whet your appetite, then get the longer version of your favourites.

This is an excellent book, not expensive, for my junior and senior non-AP Latin students. It is also a good supplementary book for my college classes. Even though some people may consider the answer key to be a disadvantage, it can be a big help if used properly. I use the book in class and give other assignments to the students outside of class that do not have the answers. A great beginning book for those who have had little exposure to Latin poetry.

I just picked this up yesterday and have worked through some of the selections. The plentiful notes are quite helpful and aid the reader in terms of vocabulary, syntax, and understanding the content. There's also a glossary at the end of the book containing presumably all the words that occur in the text. The selections on the whole look like they'll make worthwhile reading from the point of view of content. There's a section detailing syntax points of note for Latin poetry and a nice summary of the meters encountered in the selections; both of these subjects but particularly the latter can give serious headaches without an adequate guide. There are some "essays" explaining Roman books, how editing Latin texts is done, and other topics of likely interest to readers, though some of the comments are a bit quaint. On the whole though, the book is highly recommended! Great price too!