Ovid in the Third Reich (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Geoffrey Hill
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Dramatic monologue
- Genres: Poetry, Dramatic monologue
- Subjects: Dictators, Gender roles, Exile or expatriates, Poetry or poets, 1930’s, God, Christianity, Good and evil, Gods or goddesses, Conformity, Germany or German people, Greek or Roman times, Totalitarianism, Universe
The Poem
“Ovid in the Third Reich” is a short poem in two quatrains (four-line stanzas) of accentual verse; that is, the line is governed by the number of stressed, or accented, syllables. It is a dramatic monologue in which the poet speaks in the persona of the ancient Roman poet Ovid. The title, however, places him in the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, instead of the first years of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Augustus. It is clear from the title that Geoffrey Hill intends a parallel to be drawn between the two periods. They compare very clearly in several...
[The entire page is 1416 words long]
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