This poetic genre includes diverse forms and themes. Most of the times the common subjects are about the private sphere of human beings, in contrast to the epic in which the subject is marked by a public or social man. Lyric was the poetry played on the lyre, hence its name, and it was born in the Archaic period in Greece. Treated subjects are usually intimate and personal. One can distinguish subgenres like monodic lyric performed by a soloist and the chorus performed by a choir.<\/p>\n
In Rome existed from the beginning religious songs and rituals known as carmina<\/em>. All Roman poetry is inspired by the Greek. In Rome poetry was composed to be recited, not sung as in archaic Greece.<\/p>\n The lyric in Rome followed since the beginning Hellenic models. We do not have many exemples of lyric preserved from the Archaic period, only some bits and pieces. In classical times one of the most important figures was Catullus<\/strong>, who wrote a book of poems. He was the renovator of Latin poetry and imitated Alexandrian models and Aeolian lyric. Virgil<\/strong>, in his first work the Bucolics or Eclogues, imitated Theocritus and got an overwhelming success in Augustus’ Rome. Horace<\/strong>, who introduced the measure in Latin, followed Aeolian Greek models. With his Odes and Epodes he reached the highest levels of lyric poetry of all time.<\/p>\n