68-73: Deer simile

Question 1

uritur

Answer 1

marks a major progression of the fire of love towards the funeral pyre at the end of the book

Question 2

infelix

Answer 2

sudden switch from ‘pulcherrima’: love elegy -> tragedy

Question 3

vagatur

Answer 3

increase in Dido’s drifting, from purposeful ‘adeunt’ to utterly aimless ‘vagatur’

Question 4

urbe furens

Answer 4

enjambed phrase with present participle, vividly conveys how Dido’s desperation has rapidly culminated in ‘rage’

Question 5

cerva

Answer 5

simile makes Dido’s roaming more explicit, reveals Dido’s state of mind and foreshadows her tragic end

Question 6

quam procul… fixit… pastor agens telis… liquit… volatile ferrum

Answer 6

chiasmus places the ‘nescius’ pastor, Aeneas, in the centre

Question 7

fixit

Answer 7

represents Aeneas’ arrival in Carthage, when the ‘arrow’ of love first fixed itself in Dido

Question 8

liquit

Answer 8

represents Aeneas’ departure

Question 9

nescius

Answer 9

enjambed for emphasis; Aeneas is the pastor, he preys on Dido, as the pastor preys on the deer, but is ‘nescius’ of how profoundly and tragically he has affected her, as the pastor is unaware that his arrow has struck

Question 10

silvas saltus

Answer 10

hendiadys is emphasised by sibilance: tragic scene as the deer tries desperately to shake off the arrow, just as Dido at the beginning tries to resist the temptation of Aeneas, in vain

Question 11

Dictaeos;

Answer 11

abrupt caesura sets up the devastating punchline through asyndeton

Question 12

haeret… harundo

Answer 12

linked through ‘ha’ alliteration and ‘re’ ‘run’ assonance

Question 13

lateri letalis

Answer 13

linked through ‘la’ ‘le’ alliteration and the pattern of vowels ‘a’ ‘e’ ‘i’ ‘e’ ‘a’ ‘i’ -> the deer’s and Dido’s wounds are fatal, but Dido’s process of dying will be prolonged and agonising, as is depicted in the rest of the book