7

Catullus loves Lesbia. He is overwhelmingly infatuated with her and it is also pretty clear he has those same feelings about kissing her.
He seems to me to be a very passionate person, especially when it comes to Lesbia. I love the way he answers the question apparently presented by Lesbia. By comparing how many kisses he wants to the amount of sand in these places he lists, he is saying that he wants basically an infinite amount.
I've noticed that all his poems are about loving Lesbia. This considered, I wonder how the tones and themes of his poems will change if anything bad happens to Lesbia or even the relationship that they have with eachother. Now, the tones are loving and very much nice and sweet. I'll just have to wait and find out how, if they even do, change...

43

Throughout the poem Catullus just bad mouths this girl who is the mistress of another guy he clearly doesn't like that much as well.
I can tell he must have gotten pretty mad when he heard that the girl previously mentioned was being compared to Lesbia. Because of hearing that he calls the age he was living in 'tasteless and coarse'.
This poem further validates my earlier thinking that Catullus' passion and love for Lesbia is immense and also that those two very deep emotions are things of vitality to him. Every poem, in some way/shape/form, has been about his undying and evidently intense love for Lesbia. He calls her his 'shining lady', when she's with another man 'a thin flame' runs through his body, and the final and most establishing piece of evidence that love is ever important to him, when he hears some ugly girl with an unsophisticated walk and a slobbery mouth is being compared to his astoundinly beautiful love, he goes out of his way to illustrate just how much she is not in comparison with Lesbia.

83

Lesbia acts sharply when the subject of Catullus has been brought up while talking to her husband. As discussed in class the decision of Catullus to use the word sharp in describing her behavior had some consideration. The way she acts can be sharp to all three people involved in this event, Catullus, Lesbia, and her husband. Obviously this can hurt Catullus since he is the one being talked badly about. Also, if what Catullus later concludes as Lesbia acting like this so her husband is pleased and there is no question of her feelings towards Catullus, Lesbia can feel hurt since she has to fake how she feels. But along with that idea, her husband can be hurt by the behavior since his wife would be wanting another man.
What i found to be interesting was what Catullus thinks because of what happened. Since Lesbia remembers and also because she gets fired up over Catullus, he believes it means she has to have feelings for him. After reading poem 109 I see that his conclusion did turn out to be true, but it still fascinates me since I would not have come to the same assumption as Catullus.

109

This poem definitely shows Catullus's advancement with this lady who he loves. Now there has been a promise, which Catullus prays is sincere, binding them to sacred friendship. Before, he was only watching her. Apparently Catullus and her have had a conversation which means the relationship is not only him looking at her. Before it was surface observations, her looks astonished him leaving him speechless. There's actually something for Catullus to have feelings about.
The theme of love is ever present in Catullus's poems. In fact, there hasn't been one poem we've read about anything other than his love and his passion. Poem 51 is him being jealous and getting very worked up over the woman he is infatuated with. Poem 2 he even is passionate about her pet bird. It's evident love is something of importance to Catullus.

2

I believe this poem is about Catullus thinking of the woman he is in love with playing with her favorite bird, a sparrow. He would like to ease her pains and any grief she may have by playing with her or something of the sort. I'm not sure, but it seems as though it is his desire to do so..he wants "her heavy passion (to) become quiet".
It has become clear, from poem 51 and this one, that love and passion are key things to Catullus. It seems his life revolves around love. This makes sense considering love is something we discussed that matters greatly in our world. Love always has been vital to all of mankind and will continue to be so forever.
Catullus is heavily fixated on this woman. The people, and apparently the animals, she makes encounters with are all he wants to be. He wants to be the man who gets to listen to her and be the bird she plays with to comfort her. More specifically, her love is what matters to him.

51

This poem is about Catullus seeing a woman be clearly loves and refers to as 'you' with another man and how he reacts to that sight. When we were reading it, it felt like it needed to be spoken with a voice of desperation and frustration.
He is definitely passionate about this woman considering the jealous effects he feels from seeing her simply talking to another guy. Not only does he undergo feelings of jealousy when seeing her but she seems to hypnotize him and he loses his basic senses.
Catullus' poem is able to be connected to by people from any time. No matter what the date is, the way he captured the sensations and body feedback of being infatuated with somebody is truly timeless. Those effects don't change just because the year does. His figures of speech, "a thin flame flows down under my limbs," give feeling and visions to the encounter he is explaining.
Overall, his poem hits deep emotions and allows unrequitted love to have a voice.