Whore, Sweet Thing, And Other Roman Endearments

Whore, Sweet Thing, and Other Roman Endearments: An Analysis of Catullus’ V and XLII Poems

Catullus has managed to remain one of the most notable and influential poets of the Roman Empire. Throughout his era, he and his colleagues proved that a poet could be a real profession. He played a significant role during the rule of Augustus, and many of his works were preserved throughout the centuries, even though he was forgotten for quite some time after the collapse of the Roman Empire. His works, despite everything, lived on and served as inspiration for many poets starting with the Renaissance and onwards. It is interesting to compare the poems so as to see which differing formal elements they feature and how Catullus changed his style

in relation to the newly chosen topic. His poems can be characterized as bold and audacious because moral boundaries did not exist for the author as will be seen in one of the poems before. He often appears to be a person with an immensely egotistical perception on life without much care for what people think of him. If one is to compare poem V from the Lesbia poems and poem XLII, it becomes apparent that the poet does not spare much attention to the surroundings by always pursuing his goals, be it the chase after a woman's lasting affection or personal works which were taken away by the woman. His poetry is arresting because he does not care if he appears in the bad light in front of the reader. That is why he became so appealing during the subsequent centuries after a long period of oblivion. On top of being a brilliant poet from the technical perspective, he was brave in saying what he wanted and how he wanted without the fear of criticism - a trait of any great artist who values art and not the opinion of either critics or society. In both poems, Catullus resorts to numerous formal elements so as to make his lyrics filled with beautiful language, which gets the message across. He also utilizes interesting topics which capture the attention of the readers even nowadays, almost two millennia since the creation of his works.
Not much is known of Catullus' biography, so to implement the autobiographical approach during the analysis of his works is futile. Most of the information about his life can be derived from his poems only which describe his lifestyle, feelings, emotions, and other aspects of his existence. There is no clear information regarding his date of birth and death. Apparently, Catullus had a remarkable influence with his work throughout his lifetime. An anecdote saved for future generations by Suetonius tells about Caesar acknowledging the damage done to his reputation thanks to Catullus's lampoons. The latter apologized, and the two had dinner together (Gaisser 2-3). When reading his poems, it becomes apparent that he was an emotional, smart person who could eloquently express his feeling through rhyme on paper. He was not a very honest man as per the Christian values. In poem V alone it becomes apparent that he is engaged in a relationship with a married woman. Hence, it is no surprise that so few works survived the middle ages as he could have been easily deemed as yet another anachronism of the sinful hedonistic Ancient Roman paradigm, an anachronism that had no place in the society based on virtue. Nonetheless, Catullus does have certain values which occupy an important place in his life. Some of the poems describe his lifestyle and that of his friends. Though he was connected to a "governor's entourage", he lived his life distanced from politics (Gaisser 8). Above all qualities, he valued venustas, which can be translated as charm and attractiveness. However, the Ancient Roman concert virtus popularized by Cicero, which could have resonated with Christianity better, was foreign to them.
The fifth poem is arguably one of his most famous and at the same time most passionate ones.

The author openly exhibits his feelings without the fear of being judged by other people. Catullus proclaims his egotistic desires and lack of faith into the society's morals encouraging Lesbia to follow him on the difficult path of being together opposite to possible disapproval of the community. His message in the poem is not to pay attention to the comments of others so as to live and exist only for each other, because life is too short, and death can always come unexpectedly. It is very surprising to meet such a 21st-century motive within the Ancient Roman Empire because such an idea perfectly applies to current times when old conservative moral ways are disregarded for the sake of personal happiness and satisfaction. According to Richard A. Bauman, author of Women and Politics in Ancient Rome, the poet had an affair with Clodia, a senator's wife, and "She was almost certainly the ‘Lesbia’ who drove Catullus to distraction" (Bauman 69). That is why the author urges his love interest to disregard the opinion of the society. The reason for such a call to live in the moment, now, regardless of what happens is explained by line 6 in which there is mention of "eternal night" and "brief light" thus indicating the author's hopeless view at the afterlife or rather lack thereof. The author utilizes hendecasyllabic meter, which can be characterized as exhibiting plenty of elision of vowels coupled with the presence of numerous liquid consonants. When one reads the poem, it is impossible not to notice that it flows very well without any break-ins in the rhythm. The author also uses the metaphor of the evil eye for her husband willing to stop their union. He proclaims that had he known the amount of love they were experiencing for each other; he would have never managed to harm them (Dyson Hejduk

258).
The poem XLII is directed at a different person who is clearly not Lesbia because Catullus addresses her with brutality and obviously without care for her feelings (Merrill). The woman to whom Catullus addresses apparently stole his notebooks and the author attempts to get them back. The poem is filled with numerous interesting elements, which enrich the language of the poem. Line five features alliteration: "puggilaria si pati potestis." The author indicates in the line that he had given the notes for perusal and not as a gift. The alliteration can be noticed in subsequent lines 7 and 8 as well. Another instance of alliteration can be seen at the end of the poem in lines 23-24. Interestingly enough, line 24 features ellipsis where Catullus says what can be translated as "modest and good" while omitting the subject - the woman. Lines 12 and 20 feature an anastrophe around the phrase "moecha putida redde" which is repeated in line 20 vice versa (Merrill). There are also several important points about the fact that the author talks in the second person and writes "vestra" when mentioning the tablets. He tries to distance himself, trying to be cold and impassionate in the conflict while noting that the tablets are merely the vessels for the poem thus meaning that they are the physical medium for the poem, first and foremost. It differs in the mood immensely from the previous poem because he apparently has no attachment to the woman, and is simply willing to restore his honor and get his works back.
The closer observation of two poems indicates that the latter is more filled with various stylistically elements meaning that the author was obviously willing to showcase his remarkable skills in coming up with beautiful poetic language including various embellishments within the same hendecasyllabic meter. With that said, the first poem seems to be far more sincere, emotional, and desperate to the point that the author does not intend to fill it with numerous stylistically beautiful collocations, obviously intending to get his feelings across to the addressee as vividly as humanely possible. The author makes good use of double entendres in both poems thus making the poem more ambiguous, meaning more open to interpretation and interesting.
The speaker implores in poem V to give him a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred (7-10). This turn of speech either indicates the millennia of the author's undying feelings thus hinting at the immortality or an overstatement that underlines the author's passion. So, either the thousands of kisses three times are a metaphor for immortality or a hyperbole to highlight the importance of going against the currents of social norms. The double meanings are evident in both poems also partially due to the issues of translation. The poems can be translated either literally without rhyme and style, or in an artistic form, but with some loss of original meanings and phrasing. The poem XLII finishes with the final address to the unknown woman who stole his tablets as chaste and approved. In such a way, the big double entendre of the entire poem is the mysterious woman who is addressed in such a nice way in the end while being referred to as a rotten whore. In such a manner, it becomes unclear whether Catullus means indeed that the woman belongs to the most ancient profession in the world, or he is only letting his anger out in such a manner so as to get his message across effectively. The poem features a sharp comparison of a woman with the mouth of a Gallic dog and laugh of an annoying mimic. After some reflection, it seems that "rotten whore" is not meant as a genuine insult, but rather as an element of foreplay. The woman steals the author's tablets thus prompting him to chase her. In this light, it might seem that the author describes in a veiled manner under the barrage of insults a simple courting procedure between two people about to become lovers. It seems that the author's anger is fake and does not carry real meaning behind it. He swears and is enraged for show and never does any actions to retake what belongs to him by force, condescending to a lovely address at the very end of the seemingly angry monolog.
Having analyzed Catullus' poetry, it becomes understandable why he has been acquiring such a following throughout the centuries. His topics are interesting and ever-living, and on top of that, he manages to talk about them with remarkable quantities of eloquence and grace to his language. Poem V strikes right into the soul in particular due to the urgency of the message and an excellent choice of the topic which keeps resonating even within the 21st century. Poem V is a prime example of poetry relying on a great subject matter rather than eloquent language including tropes and figures. Poem V may be less exciting when it comes to in-depth reading, but the amount of violent emotion thrown into expressing the idea of carpe diem arrests the perception. With this poem alone, Catullus has proven that he is great in his craft and able to voice such ideas that would resonate with readers much later. With this poem, unlike XLII, he managed to touch something sacred and familiar to all of us - the necessity to live fully in the conditions of the never stopping fast flowing time.