poetry that should be appropriate to his feelings and his situation. This "feeling his way towards a type of poetry" may explain some of the problems encountered in Ex Ponto. Whether it is the structure of the poems or the actual content, Ovid's exile poetry has been accused of being exceedingly monotonous. Even Ovid himself recognizes this and claims the monotony is because of his plea for his rescue (III. 9. 41-52):
             Though the words are always the same, I have not written to the same persons: in one voice I seek help from a number of people. Should I, lest the reader twice find the same matter, petition you alone, Brutus, of all my friends? That would not be worth the sacrifice – pardon the confession, men of letters; my salvation means more to me than the reputation of my work. In sum, when a poet thinks of his subject – matter for himself, he can introduce as much variety as he fancies; but my Muse is all too true an index of my troubles, and has all the weight of an incorruptible witness. My purpose and care were that each friend should receive his letter, not that a book should result. Do not imagine this work is a selection: I simply collected the letters afterward and put them together unarranged. So be indulgent to my writings; for their object has been to secure, not personal glory, but advantage for myself and for others their due. How one accepts this explanation is dependent upon how merciful they feel towards Ovid's motives for making his writings public. Certainly one can understand how a man would want to plea his position and circulate his case, especially when the readers of the poems are as noteworthy as the emperor Augustus; however, Ovid's previous volume of poems,
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