Catullus 85

Catullus is hurt,

Why, because of love and hate,

This tears him apart.

Catullus 72

The theme of this poem is talking about the love Catullus has for Lesbia. The loving relationship Catullus has for Lesbia is based on the balance of many aspects of a relationship but especially the balance of more love and less respect. This is the most essential balance because he ends the poem with this balance which really makes the reader remember the tone Catullus is trying to portray in his relationship with Lesbia. There are many other balances he uses to shape the relationship. For example, he uses the word "nosse" and "cognovi" which implies Catullus thinks he knew that Lesbia was a respectful person to him, but now he knows she is not. This is why I believe he says, "amare magis, sed bene velle minus" at the end of the poem because he still loves her but respects her less. Next, he balances the way he is going to love and cherish her by balancing "vulgus" and "pater". This reveals that the love he has for Lesbia is both a protecting love and a everlasting love. The everlasting love comes from the common man loving his mistress and the protecting love comes from that, but also how a father loves to protect his sons and his sons-in-law from any harm. There are many more balances throughout this poem that further shape the type of relationship and love Catullus and Lesbia have.

Catullus 86

The way Catullus compares Lesbia to Veneres, the god of love and charm, seems as if Lesiba is better than the god or as if she is the god. Catullus says, "surripuit Veneres," which makes Lesbia seem as if she is now the god of love and charm since she stole all the love and charm from everyone. By using the Goddesses' name instead of love and charm imposes the idea more that Catullus is saying Lesbia is better than Veneres. Catullus could of said that Lesbia has the most love and charm out of all the women in the world, so he wouldn't be criticised of comparing a god to a human which is sin full.


I think Catullus looks for charm, intelligence, honesty, and being white skinned in a woman because he says, "For no charm and no wit is in such a great body..." which refers to the beautiful woman that he later denies as pretty. To further strengthen my argument, Catullus later talks about how Lesbia is beautiful because she has love and charm. Also, at the beginning of the poem he compliments the beautiful woman of being honest and white skinned. This supports my belief because he has never complimented another woman before. This shows he must like these characteristics in a woman.

Catullus 69 to Catullus 43

Catullus 69 and Catullus 43 are very similar in what each poem talks about and what they reveal about Catullus' character. Catullus 69 talks about Rufus who has trouble getting women because he smells bad. Catullus 43 talks about why Catullus doesn't like this woman who is the mistress from the play boy of Formiae. Both of these poems main focus point is on the answer to why each sex wouldn't go out with the opposite sex. For insistence, Catullus 69 expresses the feelings from the woman's view on why she wouldn't go out with Rufus and Catullus 43 expresses Catullus' feelings on why he wouldn't go out with this other girl. Both poems' answers are based around the same broad topic, appearance. I came to this conclusion because each poem never mentions charater traits to why he or she wouldn't go out with the opposite sex. All the comments from each poem is on physical traits. This gets to my next point of how the two poems are related. They reveal the true reason why Catullus loves Lesbia. Since, both poems only express physical characteristics it is easy to tell that Catullus only looks at the physical traits of a woman rather than their character. This makes it easy to conclude that Catullus only likes Lesbia because of her looks. How does he consider this true love?

Also these two poems, reveal more about Catullus' character. In each poem Catullus writes about the bad aspects of the person rather than talking about the good aspects of a person. This makes Catullus look like a hypocrite. He is a type of person who never will look at the good aspects of a person if the bad aspects are bothering him because there is not one thing in both poems that is not negative to a person.

Catullus 87

The poem is about Catullus' love for Lesbia. The way he talks about this is by comparing to aspects of a relationship with his love for Lesbia. He compares no woman ever being truly loved as much as his love for Lesbia. Then he compares not having a faith in any contact as much as his faith being found in his love for Lesbia. I think this is saying that no faith will has a true everlasting bound with its beliefs as he will be in an everlasting, loving relationship with Lesbia. I believe this because before this he talks about his love for Lesbia. He compares the two things using the words "tantum" and "quantum" which is very important because it shows that his love for Lesbia is ten times better than what he is comparing it to. For example, Catullus could of just used the word like, but he chose these words because it shows his personality and his desire to love Lesbia. It shows his desire to love Lesbia because he will do anything to love Lesbia even if it means to kill himself if she doesn't truly love him. (Catullus 92) This shows his personality because if he used the word like to compare the two things then it would of showed he was a boring and an average guy. Instead, he used "tantum" and "quantum" which shows he is ambitious and he will love Lesbia better than any other man will, including her husband. The tone of this poem is serious because he is talking about his love for Lesbia by comparing it to other things. This creates a serious tone because when you compare two things you are trying to make a point which will stand out. For Catullus, this point is when he compares his love for Lesbia. The point he is trying to make is that she will never be loved as much as he will love her by another man.

Catullus 92

In this poem love is important to Catullus. He shows that love is important to him because he uses the word "dispeream" which translates as "I may die". It is not just the word which shows the importance of love to him, but what he compares it to. He compares his death to Lesbia not loving him and comparing it to him not loving Lesbia truly. Going along with the importance of love, comes his passion for having a relationship with Lesbia. Throughout this poem, it seems as if Catullus puts you, as a reader, in a setting of a married couple arguing with each other. The poem creates this feeling because a married couple doesn't always say the nicest things to one another which attracts you into this scenario. Catullus says that Lesbia all talks bad about him, but at the same time he does the same thing to her all the time. He pictures this as a sign of a future relationship with her. He sees this because of how a couple acts by arguing with one another. He expresses this passion for a relationship with Lesbia by putting his own life in balance of the relationship. Two times in the poem, he says he is going to kill himself if this relationship doesn't work. There is a reason why he chooses to say this twice. He says it twice because it takes two loving people who would die for each other to make a relationship work. This actually ties the whole poem together. It expresses his importance of love and his passion for being in a relationship with Lesbia, but at the same time it describes how a true relationship acts and what makes one work.

Catullus 5

Catullus is very smart in using writing mechanics to paint a picture in the readers head of an idea or scene he is trying to get across. In the first part of this poem Catullus and Lesbia say that they should value the rumors of old men as nothing. To create the feeling of hearing rumors, Catullus puts the letter "s" at the end words that are around the part of the poem which has to do with the rumors. For example, he uses the verbs, amemus, vivamus, and eastimemus. Catullus uses the sound of certain letters again when he talks about having Lesbia giving him kisses. He chooses the number and word "centum" because the letter "c" in Latin makes the sound of a hard "k" in English. This hard "k" sound sounds like a kiss which is what Catullus is talking about at this point in the poem.

Also, Catullus uses certain words to get a message across that refers to Lesbia's husband. This happens when he tells Lesbia he is going to mix up all the kisses they made together, so that people will envy them. I believe he is referring to Lesbia's husband because he chooses the words, "ne quis malus," which means, "so that somebody evil may not". "Somebody evil" refers to her husband because to Catullus, he is evil since Lesbia is taken by him. This is one of the main reasons why Lesbia will not fall in love with Catullus.