Social Commentaries
Book XI, 144
Translated by W. R. Paton (1916–18) · From The Greek Anthology (Loeb, vol. IV, 1918)
To use magniloquent words and four or five Attic ones is not to study with proper fervour and wisdom. For not even if you say “quaked,” and “clangs,’ and “ hisses,” and “ gurgled,” will you be a Homer at once. Sense should underlie literature, and its phraseology be more vulgar so that people may understand what you say.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Cerealius. “Book XI, 144.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cerealius/1/.
Chicago
Cerealius. “Book XI, 144.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cerealius/1/.
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