OF VERS DE SOCIETE

In the let­ter “Of Vers De Soci­ete” addressed to Mr. Gift­ed Hop­kins, the writer cri­tiques Hop­kin­s’s poem “To Delia in Gir­ton,” advis­ing against his attempt at soci­ety vers­es, high­light­ing the chal­lenge of this genre even for the ancients who excelled in oth­er poet­ic forms. The writer nav­i­gates through his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al con­texts, from The­ocri­tus’s AEolic vers­es, emblem­at­ic of taste­ful gift-giv­ing and unob­tru­sive flat­tery, to the lim­i­ta­tions observed in Roman and Greek poet­ry, where soci­etal norms restrict­ed the themes and expres­sions suit­able for ‘soci­ety vers­es.’

The writer express­es admi­ra­tion for the pre­cise yet lim­it­ed appli­ca­tion of vers de soci­ete in ancient times, marked by cul­tur­al con­straints and a dif­fer­ent under­stand­ing of wom­en’s roles. The scruti­ny extends to Roman poet­ry, where Cat­ul­lus’s pas­sion­ate expres­sions and Horace’s reflec­tions on life and pol­i­tics, albeit in del­i­cate form, diverge from the essence of ‘soci­ety vers­es’ – light, deco­rous, yet thought­ful. Horace’s sub­tle play­ful­ness is not­ed as a clos­er match, yet the writer sug­gests that the true spir­it of soci­ety verse sel­dom surged in Roman poet­ics, restrained by cus­toms and a more grave con­tem­pla­tion of life’s brevi­ty.

Ovid’s work is briefly enter­tained for its lighter touch and play­ful approach, point­ing out the bal­ance between ele­gant jest and sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty, a char­ac­ter­is­tic deemed essen­tial for suc­cess­ful vers de soci­ete. How­ev­er, Ovid’s incli­na­tion towards a monot­o­ne style dis­qual­i­fies him from mas­ter­ing this del­i­cate art form. The let­ter crit­i­cizes the neces­si­ty for vari­ety and sub­tle­ness in tone, qual­i­ties that evade many despite their lit­er­ary prowess.

The let­ter briefly tra­vers­es mod­ern inter­pre­ta­tions, chal­leng­ing the pre­vail­ing norms and cel­e­brat­ing the finesse required to cap­ti­vate with brevi­ty and wit. Mar­tial is extolled for com­bin­ing humor with a per­son­al touch, although his con­tent often strays far from being social­ly accept­able today. The writer empha­sizes the unique­ness of suc­cess­ful­ly mas­ter­ing soci­ety verse, under­lin­ing it as a pur­suit for the gen­uine­ly gift­ed, hint­ing at Hop­kin­s’s poten­tial yet advis­ing a cau­tious refine­ment of his craft in align­ing with soci­etal ele­gance and sub­tle­ty.