This book studies the interrelation of literature and life in the Augustan poets. The works of Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid are characterised by a brilliant polish and a dazzling repertoire of devices for stylising events and emotions; yet they remain convincing as a direct response to experience and theories which deny that directness are criticised in this book as mistaken.The life of pleasure, in its kaleidoscopic variety - eating, drinking, bathing, love - is a central subject but so is death. The book also discusses the uses of mythology, the influence of poetry on experience, and the interpretation of passages in the poems of Virgil. All Latin quoted is translated into English.