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.
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