SOURCE: Martin, Jr., Hubert. “Literary Influence and Poetic Environment” and “The Verdict of Antiquity.” In Alcaeus, pp. 87-125. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972.

In the following excerpts, Martin analyzes the influence of the Homeric epic on Alcaeus and discusses ancient critical reaction to his work.

In this chapter I propose to relate Alcaeus's poetry to the antecedent and contemporary poetic traditions by which he was obviously inspired or to which he may reasonably be believed to have reacted. Such a task is a legitimate critical enterprise, providing it does not delude either reader or critic into the fallacy of thinking that this is the study of poetry proper. What it is, is the study of the means whereby poets are molded and poetry is endowed with subject matter and style. There is a sure difference between the study of a poem as an independent literary entity and the...