A recusatio is a poem (or part thereof) in which the poet says he is supposedly unable or disinclined to write the type of poem which he originally intended to, and instead writes in a different style.
The recusatio is something of a topos in ancient and Renaissance literature.[1] Its use has often been interpreted as a persona deliberately adopted by the poet, allowing him to assert himself in the guise of ironic self-deprecation or feigned humility.[2]
The topos of recusatio was introduced by Callimachus in his Aetia fr. 1.21-4,[3] and employed in his refusal to write a major epic, preferring slighter poetic forms.[4] The Anacreontea contain many similar examples.[5]
In Augustan Rome, pressure to write an epic celebration of the emperor’s achievement was felt by almost all poets. Virgil in his Eclogue VI.3ff offered an exemplary recusatio,[6] which at the same time held out the prospect of his ‘advancing’ to epic in the fullness of time.[7] By contrast Propertius (I. 7ff; II.34 lines 59-66; III.3 lines 39ff) and Horace (Ode I.6; Ode II.12) made more permanent objections;[8] while Ovid (Amores I.1; II.18) also presented himself as an elegist unable to reach to the heights of traditional epic.[9]
In the Silver Age, recusatio was used by poets to write epics but to avoid the subject of emperors themselves by disclaiming their ability to write of imperial deeds.[10] The third century AD saw recusatio employed again by Nemesianus in his Cynegetica (lines 15 - 47)[11]