fragmenta Pīsōnis

Young Piso wants to be a poet and is working hard on writing verses. He gets his inspiration from his surroundings: his brother Rufus, the gladiators in the amphitheatre and his mother Agrippina. Includes 50 new lines of poetry including dactylic hexameter, hendecasyllables, and scazon (i.e. limping iambics)!

Specifications

• 96 unique words (excluding names, different forms of words, and meaning established within the text)
• total word count: 2200
• 54 pages of text (large font)

Information for teachers

This collection of poetry from the Pisoverse features a prose description of what inspired Piso’s poetry prior to each verse itself. This provides context and exposure to the words found in each verse, adding to its comprehensibility.

Despite the lack of a single continuous plot, students should find fragmenta Pīsōnis more readable than the Pīsō Ille Poētulus novella, especially with any background knowledge from reading the other, much easier novellas in the Pisoverse (i.e. Rūfus lutulentus, Rūfus et arma ātra, and Agrippīna: māter fortis).

The poetry in this collection includes more “big content words” to clearly convey meaning. fragmenta Pīsōnis can be used as a transition to the Pīsō Ille Poētulus novella, or as additional reading for students already comfortable with poetry having read the novella. 

Use fragmenta Pīsōnis as a Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) option, read as a whole class together, or introduce each fragment as “poetry of week.”