Precis for "Poetry and Power"

          R. J. Tarrant, in his essay, "Poetry and Power: Virgil's poetry in contemporary context" (11-4-12) asserts that all of Virgil's works, especially the Aeneid, have some sort of political criticism embedded within them. The author examines each of Virgil's three major poems, the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid individually, but also cumulatively to prove this point. He looks at specific events and themes in each poem that relate to the social and political issues at the same time they were written. Tarrant also examines other ancient poets that Virgil may have been influenced by, or have worked with that also produced political poetry. The author tries to prove that Virgil is indeed "a politically engaged writer" in order to help the reader acquire a better analyzation of his poetry and how it was perceived by readers in his time (169). Tarrant looks to target an audience composed of those who have read Virgil's or other ancient poet's works.
          This article was pretty convincing, as the author brought up a lot of good points about how each of Virgil's works could be interpreted as a political text. Not only did he look at  the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid individually, but he related them collectively and talked about some of Virgil's continuous political hints. He also brought up a lot of good points about the Aeneid, (some of which we have examined in class), and by giving the reader the history on these certain parts, enables them to look at those parts as politically and socially critical. Personally, the most interesting part for me was when Tarrant talked about Virgil's apparent views on war.