Hey,
I am a Literature Student who is starting to learn latin. I’ve been five months with it now and I wanted some recommendations on where to start in latin poerty in latin. I really like Vergil and Ovid, I’m also very into satire but haven’t read Horace or Juvenal yet.
I also appreciate any recommendations on where to start reading Latin literature, even if it’s translated. Any help is welcome 
Thank you very much^^
I’m just starting as well,since Christmas, and I’m curious if you found any poetry suitable for beginners?
Hello to ilovcroketas and Ehol77,
I have a book with the poems of Catullus, which I like very much. This is a translation published by Penguin Classics:
The Poems of Catullus (translated by Peter Whigham).
In this book are short poems and not so short poems, giving a cultural and political portrait of Rome in the time of Catullus. It also has short biographical notes on most of the people mentioned in the poems.
I think it would not be difficult to find these poems in Latin as well!
Thank you so much, Khay. I’ll give it a look
Well if you really like Ovid you could start with one or two of the Amores in the original Latin. And some of the shorter poems of Catullus—but be sure to leave some for later!
Poems are always in verse, so you should learn to read them metrically, and pay attention to their structural artistry.
I second @KHay’s idea of starting with Catullus. You can easily find the Latin poems on the Latin Library and I’m sure translations aren’t too scarce, either.
If you are into satire, it may also be worth your time looking to Martial. He is sometimes a bit naughty (!) but he has several delightful (and often scathing) epigrams. They tend to be quite short and to the point, which adds to his appeal.
Quid mihi reddat ager quaris, Line, Nomentanus? j
Hoc mihi reddit ager: te, line, non video!
- Martial Epigram 2.38
(You ask, Linus, why I return to my farm in Nomentum?
This is what the farm returns to me: that you, Linus, I do not see!)
Essentially, if you’re not quite ready for the epics of Vergil and Ovid, Martial and/or Catullus are an excellent starting place. Catullus generally offers more lengthy and emotional poems, while Martial’s tend to be shorter, meaner, yet just as witty.
Quid mihi reddat ager quaeris? is actually not “You ask why I return to my farm?” but rather “You ask what return I get from my farm?” (lit. “what my farm gives me back”).
And the second line—the pentameter—says “The return I get from my farm is this: I don’t see you.” It’s a good example of the pointed and witty style of Martial’s epigrams. Catullus’s are more variegated, and pioneering. And Ovid wrote quasi-biographical erotic elegies (among other things!).