[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Carl and Julie—

I’m glad you both found this attempt an improvement over the IP version. I appreciate the time and thought you both put into your comments. You are both so generous in helping me to learn this craft.

Julie, Thanks for the useful tip on spacing. I’m still exploring all the bells and whistles built into this platform. I incorporated most of your suggestions and feel that they made real improvements. Ovid definitely is riffing on “Arma virumque . . . cano” in his opening line. I had a slightly different take on lines 19 and 20. I thought the speaker still wanted to write a martial epic, but was unable to do so because Cupid keeps changing his verse into elegiac couplets, thus the materia that he wants to discuss is not apta for the levioribus numeris, but would instead be apta for discussing a boy or a long-haired girl, well coifed. It’s not that he lacks one of these, but rather that he doesn’t want to write about them. This, of course, changes a few lines later when he’s hit by Cupid’s arrow.

Carl, you have a sensitive ear. Your notes on meter were very helpful. I revisited the lines you highlighted and made some tweaks.

Thanks so much to both of you.
Glenn