Catullus Poem 50 Notes

Question 1

What is this poem about?

Answer 1

Two poets making poetry with the playful composition and begging to repeat experience

Question 2

Who does this prayer seem to be for?

Answer 2

Calvus

Question 3

What does the poem remind the addressee?

Answer 3

What he has done in the past before going on to make the prayer

Question 4

Is the mention of Nemesis in jest or serious?

Answer 4

Jest

Question 5

What does the poem consist of?

Answer 5

Self-conscious irony; asserting passion usually associated with sexual love in a message to a fellow poet; hyperbolic style with a dire religious warning at the end

Question 6

What type of poem is it?

Answer 6

A prayer-poem

Question 7

Who is the poem aimed at?

Answer 7

Calvus

Question 8

What does Catullus convey?

Answer 8

Bacchic poetic frenzy, tradition of Plato’s ion and Phaedrus and literary tradition that a true poet is ‘possessed’ and even mad

Question 9

What is the general contrast here?

Answer 9

For all the frenzy, it is a tightly controlled piece of writing

Question 10

What does this poem represent?

Answer 10

The sort of poems him and Calvus were composing the day before

Question 11

How is this poem overall witty?

Answer 11

It talks about ‘playing around’ when the poem itself is a playful parody on a prayer to a god

Question 12

The humour and literary skill mentioned in Calvus is also present in…

Answer 12

The text itself

Question 13

Who is Licinius?

Answer 13

C. Licinius Calvus Macer seen in poems 14, 53 and 96 and poet of the mini epic, Io

Question 14

What does ‘Otiosi’ do here?

Answer 14

Sets the scene. ‘Otiosi’ means leisure not ‘negotium’ which is business

Question 15

Where else is the concept of ‘otium’ found?

Answer 15

Virgil book 4. Ovid

Question 16

What does ‘ludere’ normally refer to?

Answer 16

Music and poetic composition

Question 17

What is the alternative meaning of ‘ludere’?

Answer 17

Fooling about with indiscreet affairs etc

Question 18

What does ‘ludere’ match with?

Answer 18

‘Delicatos’

Question 19

What sort of poetry does ‘delicatos’ show this poem to be?

Answer 19

Unserious

Question 20

‘Delicatus’ is a cognate of what?

Answer 20

Deliciae

Question 21

When ‘delicatos’ is written in poetry what does it show?

Answer 21

The poem is art for art’s sake without any real didactic or moral purpose

Question 22

What was the result of them ‘playing’ with poetry?

Answer 22

Excitement rather than any grave work of literature

Question 23

What technique was used with ‘versiculos’? What is the effect?

Answer 23

Diminutive to convey a light nature to the poetry

Question 24

What is the effect of the repetition of ‘ludo’?

Answer 24

Stresses the vital word and keeps the image of lightness

Question 25

What is ‘incensus’ a common metaphor for?

Answer 25

Sexual love

Question 26

What is ‘incensus’ used for here?

Answer 26

To show the poet’s excitement at his companion’s brilliance and humour

Question 27

‘Miserum’ primarily means…

Answer 27

‘Lovesick’ so puts a sexual edge on the relationship of the two poets as a metaphor for the excitement felt by the poet in the act of comprising poetry.

Question 28

What is there pleonasm of?

Answer 28

‘Toto’

Question 29

What does ‘indomitus’ literally mean?

Answer 29

Untamed

Question 30

What highlights the wild frenzy of the moment?

Answer 30

Juxtaposition of ‘indomitus’ with ‘furore’

Question 31

What is ‘cupiens’ suggestive of?

Answer 31

Sexual desire but he actually desires the dawn

Question 32

What words are colloquial on line 13?

Answer 32

‘Simul esse’

Question 33

How do we know all this excitement has exhausted him?

Answer 33

‘Defessa’, hyperbolic ‘semimortua’, ‘iacebant’

Question 34

How is there pathos on line 15?

Answer 34

‘Lectulo’ creates this image of the poet lying alone of the bed and his limbs lying as if they were dead

Question 35

What is the effect of ‘iucunde’?

Answer 35

Continues note of close affection between two poets

Question 36

What can ‘dolorem’ refer to?

Answer 36

The pain of love and loss and also literary pathos.

Question 37

What point is Catullus trying to give with ‘dolorem’?

Answer 37

The way the poet conveys the pain of literary longing and he wants Calvus to see his pain and appreciate his pathos

Question 38

What technique is used with ‘cave… cave… caveto’?

Answer 38

Tricolon

Question 39

What will happen to the addressee if he rejects the literary overture?

Answer 39

Suffer

Question 40

Where is a similar warning about rejecting prayer seen?

Answer 40

Phoinix to Achilles. Homer’s Iliad book 9

Question 41

What does the ‘despuas’ show?

Answer 41

Giving the addressee the room to accept a measure of the poet’s friendship so long as he doesn’t spit it out completely

Question 42

Who is Nemesis?

Answer 42

An ancient goddess who avenges wrongdoing mercilessly and punishes hubrius. She is paired with Aidos (shame). One is an inner deterrent against wrongdoing and the other is an external check on behaviour

Question 43

What did the ‘jealous gods of mythology’ do?

Answer 43

Punish human arrogance with hideous torments e.g Arachne turned into a spider for saying she could spin as well as Minerva

Question 44

What is the overall warning to Calvus at the end?

Answer 44

Unspecified punishment awaits Calvus if he spurns Nemesis

Question 45

If ‘convenerat’ is an impersonal verb, what could it mean?

Answer 45

‘It had come together in our thoughts’

Question 46

What is the contrast with the bed?

Answer 46

Suggested it was a big bed but was a little bed

Question 47

How is the smallness of the bed shown?

Answer 47

Diminuitive

Question 48

Is the warning about Nemesis serious?

Answer 48

No

Question 49

What is Catullus overall doing with this poem?

Answer 49

Wants to tell Licinius how much he enjoyed yesterday but he does it in same style as poetry he wrote yesterday