The Poet and the Poem
2024-25 Series

Featured Richard Colaresi

Click here for Richard Colaresi podcast.mp3

 Richard Colaresi started his adult life as a teaching Brother of Holy Cross, attending Stonehill College, majoring in English and minoring in Latin.  His favorite poet was, and still is, Vergil, but he thought that no English translations of Vergil ever came close to capturing the poetry and voice of the poet, and he vowed one day he would write the definitive Aeneid in English.  Upon graduation, he began teaching in MD. In 1970, he left the Holy Cross community and taught at Gonzaga College High School on North Capital St for several years before going to law school and setting up a law practice that focused on constitutional and civil rights law and governmental issues for over 40 years.  As he began to wonder what he would do once he retired, his old vow hovered before him. And so he began his translation, aiming for clarity, and vividness.  It has taken him ten years to complete.  His smooth, readable version was published this year in January.

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