This book studies the inter-relation of literature and life in the Augustan poets. The works of Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid are characterized by a brilliant polish and a dazzling repertoire of devices for stylizing events and emotion; yet they remain convincing as a direct response to experience. Theories which deny that directness are criticized 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 central passages in the poems of Virgil. All Latin quoted is translated into English.