Allusions across the language barrier : the poetic techniques of Voltaire and Vergil

Allusions are central to epic poetry in both the classical world and the Enlightenment, yet the question of what constitutes an allusion is still debated. This volume applies the techniques of computational linguistics to generate a model of allusions in Voltaire's Henriade and Vergil's Aeneid. The poetic features identified are shown to distinguish allusion from coincidental similarity in the eyes of readers. Reader reaction to a possible allusion is shown to be stable, and the features of epic allusion are shown to be effective in a modern context. This empirical description of a poetic device improves our understanding of poetic composition, and our understanding of the way human beings process language.