Martial: Select Epigrams Book

I've thought for a long time that I've got a lot in common with Garry Wills, except that he's smarter, better-educated, and more diligent. But I tend to agree with him, or be persuaded by him, in practically everything he's written. Here he's done a translation of many of Martial's epigrams (short Latin poems from about the reign of Nero and after), completely unexpurgated (which is unusual), and in fact reveling in their frequent obscenity. He even has a helpful subject index in the back, listing the various poems under such headings as body odor, marital infidelity, fellatio, and cunnilingus. Woohoo! In his introduction he astutely points out that much of the humor in these poems comes from the vulgar subject matter being contrasted with its expression in very concise and artful language. So he insists on rigid formal structure in his English--careful rhyme and fairly regular meter. All well and good, but unfortunately he's a much better critic than he is a poet, and the effort wears thin pretty quickly. Still, fun to browse through.