Well, teaflower, I honestly doubt you'd come across Sulpicia even then. She's rather obscure, I think, and there aren't many poems that she wrote (only six), and seeing as they were found as a chapter in the works of Tibullus, some think that she didn't exist, and it's just his experimenting. I'd reject that view... her style is entirely different than Tibullus. Far less polished, and even in Latin sounds more like a young girl talking, rather than an adult poet (after all, judging by the way she's talking, and the customs in Rome, she's probably something like 14.) Anyway, she seems like someone who isn't yet all that deft with the use of language, and so makes things needlessly complex... interesting, to be sure, but all the same makes it a challenge to translate. I've not happened upon her till now, and I'm in a mixed 400/500 level class, which is essentially graduate level. So the chances of you being shown Sulpicia in class are essentially zero.
If you do any poems, they'll be excerpts from Vergil, Ovid, and perhaps Catallus and Horace. These are all excellent poets (though, I must admit, have a certain dislike for Vergil on the grounds that he is very highly lauded, and yet his Aeneid is, for all its excellent Latin writing, Augustan propoganda written in the mode of Homer fanfiction!) and a tad easier. Nonetheless, even these, even in a first year university Latin course, would only be looked at in simplistic and cursory terms. When you get to the tougher writers... well, you'd have to wait for a long time to get to those... or you can always glance at her yourself. Hey, you're not having to do it for class, so find yourself a translation, find yourself the Latin, and compare the two. Rather than having to struggle through translating yourself, you can learn why and how things were done in the poetry, which can be very beneficial!
For example, this is one of hers (a translation I found on this site:
http://www.geocities.com/romanelegy/sulpicia.htm) It's not a bad translation:
My hateful birthday’s come, which must be spent in gloom
in the boring countryside -- without Cerinthus!
What’s nicer than the city? What girl would want some cabin,
and the chilly river of Aretium’s fields?
Now do stay put, Messalla; you try too hard to please me:
trips, my uncle, are not always welcome.
My heart and soul will stay behind, although I’m gone,
since you won’t let me act as I would wish.
The Latin for this runs:
Inuisus natalis adest, qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.
Dulcius urbe quid est? an villa sit apta puellae
atque Arretino frigidus amnis agro?
iam, nimium Messalla mei studiose, quiescas:
non tempestivae saepe, propinque, viae.
hic animum sensusque meos abducta relinquo,
arbitrio quamvis non sinis esse meo.
See what you can make out of that. And when you get good enough at Latin, you can try writing your own elegy! I've managed a translation of a full sonnet of mine into proper Latin verse, but it takes a very, very long time, even when you've got a good grasp of what you're doing. Nonetheless, it can be ever so fun. Latinum gaudium est!
