This work explains how to read three quite different ancient poets. In a close and sensitive reading of Sappho, Catullus, and Juvenal, the author delineates the uniqueness of the poet's individual voice in relation to poetic traditions. His book constitutes a challenge to the view that one method will suffice for the interpretation of ancient poetry. He seeks to demonstrate that we can have no substitute for flexible and humane judgment, liberated from critical dogma, if we are to understand the great writers of the past.