86

This poem is another one which point is to show how Lesbia is overwhelmingly beautiful and beyond compare. It reminds me a lot of poem 43, where he bad-mouthed a girl when she was compared to Lesbia. In this poem, he compares Lesbia to Quintia to prove her beauty, sortof the opposite of what happened in poem 43 but the general concept of both is the use of comparison to exemplify Lesbia's radiance. Also like in poem 43 he denounces Quintia at first to later make Lesbia seem much more beautiful. The biggest difference I think there is, however, is that he seemed to have hated the girl in poem 43 but here he respects her but doesn't think she is beautiful since Lesbia is the most beautiful. Also, in poem 43 he says her 'walk' is sloppy but Quintia's is 'upright'. These are just the comparisons of the two poems, though.
It is obvious that Catullus thinks Lesbia is very graceful and fine, but it's pretty arrogant of him to publicy impugn these girls/people to proclain her beauty. Catullus seems to enjoy publicly humiliating people he for whatever reason doesn't like. Like obviously in poem 43 like I already compared, when he asked the rhetorical question "ten provincia narrat esse bellam", and in poem 69 with "quare aut crudelem nasorum interfice pestem aut admirari desine cur fugiunt." In this poem he still criticizes but it seems to like her a bit more.