Catullus 43

Watching ugly girl?

Why, when you love Lesbia?

Then compare the two!?

Catullus 7

One of the biggest questions I have after reading this poem is; why does Catullus have to use two examples to show how many kisses he is going to give Lesbia? I know that it gives a better romantic feel to the poem, but at the same time the examples show us, the readers, his personality and character. It reveals that Catullus seems to be a creepy stalker because he wants to kiss Lesbia, who really doesn't know he likes her, as many times as there are stars in the sky at night. This gives the reality of Catullus being a stalker, just like poem 51. In poem 51, he is sitting far away watching Lesbia talk to a man while he thinks about all his feelings he has for her. Another reason why Catullus uses two examples to show the number of kisses he is going to give Lesbia is because the examples are symbols that are representations of people. I think Catullus uses specifically two examples because I believe he is thinking about two different women that he has to choose over. The two women are Lesbia and the other, is a mistress from the playboy of Formiae. The mistress appears in poem 43. I came up with this idea of the two examples representing the two women after reading poem 43, when he states a question about comparing the two women. I believe the first example Catullus uses represents Lesbia because there are more grains of sand on Cyrene than there are stars in the sky at night. This symbolizes Lesbia because that means he would give Lesbia more kisses than the mistress who we know he doesn't like after reading poem 43.

Overall, this poem can connect to many of his other poems he has written. Being able to connect his other poems to this poem allows you to figure out the type of guy Catullus really was.

Catullus 83

The poem Catullus 83 portrays two main points about Catullus' personality and his love for Lesbia. After reading this poem by Catullus a huge surprise is revealed. The surprise concerns Lesbia, Catullus' love. The surprise is that the readers find out Lesbia has a husband. This changes everything for Catullus because you can't want to marry and love a person that is already married. In the Roman life, as i recall, if you wanted to marry someone who was already married it was considered a sin. After reading the first line of the poem, I believe Catullus' feelings are going to change dramatically. I believe this because he is going to have to give up on trying to get Lesbia to fall in love with him. Catullus is going to have to find another woman to love since Lesbia is taken. He has a better chance at finding another woman to love because if he continues to love Lesbia he is going to have to find a way for Lesbia to break up with her husband. This will lead to more problems and complications for Catullus. Hopefully, Catullus will get over his feelings that he has for Lesbia.

The conclusion made me feel like I was completely wrong about Catullus because he still loves Lesbia after finding out she has a husband. He continues to love Lesbia because he says she remembers him by overhearing her talk about him to her husband. This reveals a lot about Catullus' personality because he keeps pursuing Lesbia. The poem shows Catullus is a man who gets what he wants. Overall the poem is great in revealing the way Catullus thinks.

Catullus 109

This poem is mainly about Catullus' love for Lesbia. It is clear that he is talking to Lesbia because he starts the poem off with, "mea vita," which translates as "my life". I know this refers to Lesbia from my previous readings of Catullus, but especially poem 51. The poem expresses his love for Lesbia through his use of beautiful words. He uses the words like everlasting, "perpetuumque", and forever lasting, "aeternum". You can tell Catullus loves Lesbia because he speaks to the Gods about her. When you speak to the Gods, this subject of matter must really be important to you since they are the most respected and powerful aspect of the Romans' life. Since the poem is all about his love for Lesbia, the tone of the poem is romantic. He wants to make this love between them be a forever true lasting relationship. In this case true means being truthful and holy to each other.

I strongly believe that this poem relates to anyone in love. A person in love can relate to this poem because many people when they are in love, now-a-days, go to the God they believe in. For example, many Catholics will go pray in a church, instead of just talking to the Gods like Catullus did.

Catullus 2

The poem is very classical in my sense. It is classical for the main reason of connecting to human nature and their actions. The mood I get from this poem is the way Catullus is watching and talking about Lesbia, his "love". To me it gives an overall presence of always watching the one person you love. I get this feeling because Catullus describes a whole scene of watching her being compassionate to her pet. For example, Catullus says, "...with whom she often plays whilst she holds you in her lap..." This connects to human nature because I believe humans always carefully watch the person they have a crush on, like Catullus does, or the one person they love. Another reason it connects to human nature and makes the poem classical is the feeling of the poem. The feeling of being romantic connects to human nature because humans at least once in their life have a sense of love like, Catullus does in this poem. It is shown from the very start of the poem when Catullus loves Lesbia, but she doesn't know this. I believe she doesn't know this because he is watching her like he has a crush on her. He starts to wish that she would love him the way she loves her pet. This feeling comes from Catullus saying, "...ah-might I but play with you as she does, and lighten the gloomy cares of my heart!" Many people wish the same thing Catullus does, that's why it is classical. It connects to the people of today, but a little differently with the same purpose. A person who has a crush on someone who is already going out with another person would say, "I wish that person would love me like he/she loves the other person." This is the typical situation of today's world. Overall this poem is very classical from the sense of being romantic.

Catullus 51

Through this poem you see many different prospectives from which Catullus writes about. The different prospectives cause Catullus to show many feelings. At the very beginning, Catullus talks from a prospective of viewing two people talking with each other. One person is Lesbia which he "loves", and the other is a man she is with. Catullus at this point is very upset because he sees his "lover", Lesbia, with a man that is paying very close attention to her. In the poem its says the man is listening and watching, but the way Catullus writes it, it seems the man likes Lesbia. Next, Catullus talks from his own prospective. He starts to explain his own feelings about what he is watching. Catullus says he doesn't have a voice when he looks at Lesbia, along with a numb tongue. He goes on to say that many other things happen to him like; a thin flame penetrates under my skin, my ears are ringing with their own sounds, and my ears are covered by a dark night. These feelings he is describing shows that he loves Lesbia very much and he hates seeing her with another man. Finally, he is still in his own prospective but he talks about the use of free time. In the actual poem he uses the word leisure which I see as a more romantic word. I think he uses this because this poem is about loving Lesbia. Catullus says that leisure time is annoying to him. Free time is annoying to Catullus because he sees his "love" with another man which tears him apart. Later on he thinks leisure time has destroyed kings and cities before him. I believe he said this because he sees himself as a king that has a city and Lesbia as his queen. Through the use of leisure time, his dream has been destroyed.