"Vergil has exerted a stronger grasp on the poetic imagination and critical scholarship than almost any other poet. This book - a collection of essays and conversations by such leading poets and classicists as Joseph Brodsky, Christine Perkell, Michael C. J. Putnam, and Mark Strand - explores the ways in which Vergil has influenced readers of today.".

"The book takes a broad look at questions of historicism: how we read a work written 2,000 years ago. There are not only close readings of the Aeneid, the Eclogues, and Georgics, but also essays dealing with such topics as Vergil's relation to the Roman past, the critical reception of the Aeneid through the centuries, and Vergil's influence from the Renaissance to the present."--BOOK JACKET.