The Poetic Laboratory of the Kyiv-Mohylan Poetics. Some Practical Illustrations

Abstract

In this paper the Author illustrates different specimens of Neo-Latin poetry produced in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’s poetics classes. Although their content and their artistic value vary greatly, depending on their authors (either students or teachers), the interest of these poems lies in their being practical embodiments of the conception of poetry fostered at the KMA and of theoretical prescriptions for poetic style and language imparted to the students of poetics.
Besides being an excellent means for learning language, Neo-Latin poetry contributed both to the education of pious men and loyal subjects, and to providing the KMA itself with an ideological foundation and with gravitas as a cultural institution. The analysis of the extant poetic production of students and teachers of the KMA, of which the poems presented here constitute a small portion, shows that the specific participation in European Latinitas cultivated in the humanities class at the KMA and in similar schools played a part in fostering a distinct cultural and national Ukrainian identity.