Saturday, October 3, 2009

Catullus 5

In this poem, Catullus decides to take a different tone in his writing. Here he decides to talk about how days come and go, and that the time you spend on Earth should be taken advantage of. In this case, kissing is the best way to make your time on Earth worthwhile.
At first, the poem takes a lighthearted sort of go about it, with telling Lesbia that they should be happy and not bother with worthless rumors of old men. Then, the poem takes a turn of saying how life can be cut short, into an eternal sleep. After this, kissing is requested. Catullus then seems to become more paranoid and scared of envious onlookers, so he decides that they should not bother with keeping up on how many kisses were shared.
The themes of jealousy and a sort of paranoia pop up in this poem quite a bit, with the tone staying light up until the end. In earlier poems, the same sorts of things have been seen, but Catullus never looked at life in such a philosophical matter before, such as saying the sun will set on our time and bring us into an eternal sleep (AKA death). Death hasn't ever been mentioned before, so the questions of him bringing it up arise.

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