Queer Roman Verse

A vital reclamation of queer themes in the poetry of ancient Rome from an electric new talent in classical translation.

Centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, as new global empires sought to enshrine the art and literature of their ancient predecessor, some inconvenient truths were lost in translation. Queer love and desire—expressed freely and variously throughout Roman poetry, from the lyrics of Horace to the epics of Virgil and Ovid—had no lexicon in nineteenth-century English, whose classical revivalists passed down a canon shaped by Victorian ideals governing family, moral discipline, and public virtue. To English readers, the queer contours of Rome became disguised, distorted, or erased.

This landmark anthology, spanning four centuries and fourteen major poets, offers a long-overdue correction to the record. Vibrant, nimble meters by award-winning translator C. Luke Soucy keep pace with Latin formulations, revealing a rich current of queer themes that have always been present in those great works of antiquity—and a powerful reminder that what has always been here has always been queer.