Carmina 1-14

• Carmen 1: poem of dedication to Cornelius Nepos.
  Discussion:
  J. P. Elder wisely suggests that poem 1 should be read with c. 50 in mind(Catullus I, His Poetic Creed, and Nepos," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 71, 1966, pp. 143-148.) Catullus' introductory poem establishes a literary context, and the following several poems give a social context which explain how Catullus' world of otium works. Drawing on the information given in 50, we eventually will understand that his nugae are the products of a ludus poeticus and require the presence of otium. This introductory poem announces the poet's intent to break with the tradition of Ennius and "serious" poetry in order to write his nugae. Although he may be poking some fun at Cornelius Nepos, I prefer to see this poem as expressing Catullus' genuine hope that these nugae contained in a lepidum nouum libellum will be received as worthy by "respected literary readers like Nepos," (Elder, p. 143) and will have some lasting merit. By the time we finish the polymetrics, we understand that nugae are the products of the otiosi and that they represent the poet's ideal of otium in both its literary (as here) and social context.

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 1		Otium: literary	tension of poet breaking with tradition: literary otium threatened by Ennian model and judgments of respected Roman readers

• Carmen 2 : a poem in which the poetic persona acknowledges his girl's affection for her pet sparrow (passer). The poem is an expression of unfufilled love . There is an implied difference between the emotion of the poet-lover and the shallow(?)emotion of the lady addressed.
  Discussion:
  Having introduced us into the world of literary otium in poem 1, the poet now takes us into the other set of meanings for his ludus: his social otium. The passion and eroticism of the first passer poem represents the seductive nature of otium and introduces the consoling "safe haven" motif which finds its fullest expression in the travel poems which follow later. The poet meditates on the consoling powers of the bird of Venus (or love) and wishes that he may experience this ludus, a word which for our poet in its noun or verb form always seems to carry both the meaning of love play and poetic play. Thus, the choice of words suggests that the poem is about Lesbia and love, but the passer, the deliciae meae puellae, quicum ludere, (in addition to the possibility of its more erotic meaning) also stands for love poetry, quicum ludere, and the consolation that the puella docta gains from it. Deliciae, the word which describes the passer, has been recognized as referring both to delights of love and poetic delights. (See William Fitzgerald, Catullan Provocations, 1995, p. 36; or Micaela Janan, When the Lamp is Shattered, 1994, p. 50.) Could it be that 2b makes this connection with poetry clear by referencing a once familiar but now lost poem about a well known mythological tale?

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 2		Otium:Primary--social(love) Secondary--literary	Comforting thought of the consolation of otium (love and poetry) opposed by the possibility of being excluded from this comfort (safe haven)

  Carmen 3: a parody of a funeral dirge (here for the dead sparrow). The poet-lover speaks of death which robs all beauty.
  Discussion:
  Poem 3 continues the passer theme and the same treatment of the world of social otium, here in the form of a mock dirge. Although there is obvious humor in both poems 2 and 3, the poet allows serious undertones as well. Otium is an ideal for the poet because it is the world where love (and love poetry) can flourish. The loss of the sparrow, or love, (or poetry) is the death of love and otium, and therefore the ultimate threat to the ideal. When the poet calls on all of the Venuses and Cupids to mourn and all of the hominum uenustiorum, he calls on the urbani to recognize their loss. (The use of the comparative form venustiorum suggests the exclusiveness of Catullus' urbani who break with the traditions/life style of the "others.") (See Wiltshire, CW,70, pp. 319-326, for the humor involved in the use of venustas. )

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 3		Otium: Primary--social(love) Secondary--literary	Mourning over the loss (death) of the source of comfort

• Carmen 4 : the first travel poem. The speaker presents a boat which has provided for a safe journey.
  Discussion:
  Quinn, Wiseman, Copley and Putnam all see this poem as sharing characteristics with poems 9, 31, and 46. All of these travel poems have in common the theme of a happy, arrival to a safe haven. In fact, in the polymetrics the only enjoyable part of traveling is the notion of "homecoming." The poet tells an audience of guests (hospites) the story of the ship by indirectly reporting the words of the ship (which apparently, like the Argo, etc., can speak). The ship says (through the guide) that it was a swift ship and tells of its origins and its excellence in sailing. In the last three lines, the guide-poet-speaker relates that having safely sailed the threatening seas the ship now finds rest at this clear lake where it presently resides in peace. Whether the poem is seen as biographical, or as some other symbolic journey through life, or as a literary piece, or as just simply what it says it is, the psychology is the same: the speaker through the personified ship tells the story of arrival to a place where it may reside at leisure (quiete=otio). This poem then introduces an important motif of otium as a safe haven which offers an escape to the secure world of leisure (represented here as the limpid lake) and where perhaps the sea represents the journeys to and from the life of negotium.

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 4		Otium--safe haven	Rest and safety from the outside world of commerce and travel, perhaps with biographical references to the time of negotium at Bithynia.

  Carmen 5: the first basia poem. The poet-lover expresses the ecstasy of love, the threat of severe elders, and the theme of carpe diem.
  Discussion:
  Now that the psychological backdrop is the feeling of safety and leisure afforded by our safe haven, the poet proclaims his commitment to otium. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus. The feeling of security is not totally without conflict, however, as the boast of disdain for the rumoresque senum severiorum introduces the senes as a symbol of opposition to the world of otium. The defiance of youth is opposed by the conservative elders. Quinn places the poem in a biographical context observing that "the affair [of Catullus and Lesbia] is an open scandal--and they don't care." That mindset is characteristic of the escape to otium, but lives in tension with the "real world where there are [from the poet's point of view] real fools and gossips to be dismissed." (Catullus, pp. 87-88.) Others have seen Catullus' attempts to calculate the number of kisses as the speaker's attempt to address the world of negotium in its own business terms. (R. E. Grimm, "Catullus 5 Again," CJ 59(1963), pp15-22.) The psychology of the safe haven is further threatened by the theme of life's transient nature. The poet states his angst over the brevis lux and then adds, nox est perpetua una dormienda, a verse heavy with the overtones of both eroticism and mortality. The poem concludes with speaker and lover in their safe haven where there can be countless kisses, but the threat is continued in the poet's fear ne quis malus invidere possit. Thus as the poem throws the world of negotium into confusion, the literary statement demonstrates that for the urbani not only love, but love poetry transcends negotium.

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 5		Otium: Primary--social(love) Secondary--literary	Abandonment to world of otium. Opposition of senes and negotium.

  [For counting of kisses=playing with poetry see Fitzgerald, 1995, 37; invidere suggests Invidia=Nemesis in poem 50 (Weisman, Catullus and his world, p. 140.) See also Catullan questions 9-11 for otium as underlying theme of poems 2-26]

  Carmen 6: first invective (here rather fun loving and non-threatening) directed against Flavius and his deliciae and mentioning the theme of elegans-inelegans.
  Discussion:
  Interposed between poems 5 and 7 is the contrastingly obscene Flavius poem. Even as the speaker defends his world of otium from the intrusions of negotium, yet another threat is mounted by those who would like to play at otium, but would do so in an inelegant and uncharming manner. Once again in this poem love and poetry share the same vocabulary, and when Flavius' deliciae are described as illepidae atque inelegantes, we are to understand that the threat to Catullus' ideal otium is inelegant poetry as well as love. (Wiseman, Catullan Questions, p. 12.) When the poet ends the poem with the mention of praising Flavius' amores (the scortum of verse 5) in lepido versu, it brings to our minds the contrast between poems 5 and 6. Nevertheless, Flavius' inelegant amores have in the poem been praised in lepido versu and thus the poem raises the issue of the primacy of poet over love: can the poet's charming verse make an inelegant subject lepidus??]

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  # 6		Otium: Primary--social (love) Secondary--literary	Speaker's otium is threatened by the intrusion of the inelegant and uncharming

  Carmen 7: second basia poem, emotionally cooler and more detached than C. 5.
  Discussion:
  Here the speaker revisits the scene of poem 5; however, as many have noted, the mood has changed and the speaker seems more restrained (and artificial: basiationes?). The expression of some outside threat to the lovers (and otium) still remains as curiosi recalls senes and fascinare brings to mind the bewitchment or envy of invidere. It is as if the contrasting poem which intervenes has brought a dose of reality to the poet's fantasy otium. Now Catullus begins to feel that he is not well (vesano). Ferguson mentions that certain stylistic features of the poem are reminiscent of Callimachus and that the mention of Cyrene (Callimachus' birthplace) and Battis (the name of Callimachus' father, although another Battis is meant here) also bring to mind the Hellenistic poet. Commager states that the careful arrangement and style of this poem suggests that "Catullus the lover may be vesanus, but Catullus the poet is not."

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #7		Otium: Primary--social(love) Secondary--literary	Questioning abandonment to world of otium. Opposition of curiosi.

  Carmen 8: representation of a crisis in the poet-lover's affair and the need for him to stand firm.
  Discussion:
  This poem is one of Catullus' finest and stands as a pivotal piece in the first group of poems 1-14. The speaker refers to his earlier hope for the safe haven offered by his ideal otium. The bright suns of l. 8 recall the suns of carmen 5 and the desert heat of 7. The iocosa of l. 6 recalls the iocari of carmen 3. Those were happy times; however, the brevis lux has apparently passed. The psychological drama of the poet/lover is represented even while the world of blissful otium dissipates. Now the reality of a lost love threatens to destroy the poet's otium. Does he have the power to overcome this threat? In the latter part of poem 8 Catullus raises again the question of primacy between love and poet. The equation of carmen 50 suggests the the two are inseparable. (See also R. L. Rowland, "Miser Catulle," G&R 13(1966) 15-21.) The dichotomy between rational poet and irrational lover merges into one non answer or stalemate at the end. The questions which end carmen 8 leave the issue unsolved. Is this the paradox of the love poet? Is this the danger of otium which is addressed in carmen 51? The meter of poem 8 (choliambic) is associated with comedy and satire. A number of conclusions have been drawn from this use of choliambic meter in carmen 8; however, as interesting as it is to speculate on whether this poem is completely serious, merely a joke, or a satire of the lover persona in the poem, the truth lies between the lines and the sensibilities of the reader. How do you characterize the intent of the poem?

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #8		Otium: Primary--social (love)	Tension of lost love and how to regain control. Is the speaker succesful in his obdura or not?

  Carmen 9: second travel-"safe haven" poem, here expressing joy over Veranius' return.
  Discussion:
  Having reached a point of impasse at the end of carmen 8, it is fitting that Catullus should retreat to another travel poem representing the arrival at a safe haven. Veranius' homecoming from negotium in Spain brings a return to the security of the friendly society of urbani. The intimacy of family and friends is stressed in this place of otium, but the reader carries forward the ironical remembrance of intrusions into this safe space as represented in other poems (most especially from the unresolved end of 8) as Catullus asks the question, "O quantum est hominum beatiorum, quid me laetius est beatiusve?"

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #9		Otium: safe haven	Safety of return to happy home of leisure after business abroad.

  Carmen 10: light invective, joking poem about the poet-lover's failure in matters of negotium.
  Discussion:
  The poet is often able to to treat the opposition of otium and negotium as well as other "serious" themes with a sense of humour. In this poem the business of young men in serving in the provinces (negotium) intrudes into the elegans world of leisure (otium) at the point where the speaker is who is "otiosum" acts as judge of elegance pronouncing the scortillum to be non sane illepidum neque invenustum. (See Skinner and Fitzgerald.) Otium, however, is difficult to maintain without the financial wherewithal to enjoy it, and that wealth is generally obtained through negotium. Thus, when the girl asks the speaker about the wealth obtained while the speaker was in foreign service at Bithynia, the speaker betrays a touch of inelegant behavior himself by hurling abuse on his governor. His language humorously shows his emotional unease (the governor is irrumator and the non sane illepidum girl becomes cinaediorem). In order to maintain his status as one of the urbani, he is forced to lie about his acquisition of wealth by stating that in fact he had obtained some men to carry his litter. When asked to produce these men to provide transportation for the girl, the speaker covers himself with another lie that he was speaking of the servants of his good friend Cinna--but he and Cinna share and share alike. Although I agree with Skinner that the scorta in Catullus' polymetrics are generally present as a foil to the image of lepida Lesbia, this particular scortillum causes a small chink to appear in the speaker's armor of elegant charm. In other words, the poet's characterization of behavior befitting the urbani includes some self-deprecating humor.

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #10		Otium: social	Maintaining the attitude of being at otium and urbane in the face of realities from the world of negotium

  Carmen 11: a combination of travel and invective allowing the poet-lover to comment on matters of negotium and love.
  Discussion:
  In this poem the poet-lover takes two symbols of his world of otium, his comites and his puella, and displaces them into the very forces which are opposite to his ideal otium. Furius and Aurelias appear to be members of the urbani--they are after all comites Catulli. But they are associated with Catullus as travelling companions and in the polymetrics travel is synonymous with negotium. Nevertheless Catullus' intense hostility towards the two will not be apparent until the next cycle of poems. Here they are represented as companions who are prepared to travel to the ends of the earth--away from a life of liesure. I cannot believe that such travel could be perceived by the poet as either pleasurable or an escape from a wounded heart (Quinn, Catullus, 160-176) . As in other poems, travel is a bad experience and, consequently, one might expect that the willingness of Furius and Aurelias to be comrades in travel is either ironic or signifies their willingness to suffer with the poet. Thus they are asked to join in his suffering over his puella and to be messengers of inelegant words (non bone dicta). Their message is a discordant recollection of the days when bright suns shone and Catullus proclaimed, "vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus." Here the words, "cum suis vivat valeatque moechis" transfer the beloved Lesbia of poem 5 to the sordid inelegant world of the scorta. Then final stanza represents the plow, which, in addition to the sexual implications, is another agent of negotium. The heavy plow effortlessly, almost unintentionally, severs the gentle flower of the poet's love, the heart of his otium. [Catullus creates tension in his poetry between the purity of love and the sordid aspects of passion.]

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #11		Otium:social (love)	Bitterness and suffering over the his love causes the speaker to renounce his love. The gentleness of his love, the heart of his otium is represented in the contrast between the flower and the plow and the dislocation of Lesbia into the realm of the scorta.

  Carmen 12: a "story-based" poem (cf. c. 10) about the theft of a napkin.
  Discussion:
  Here we see, as Forsyth has shown us, the beginning of a new mini cycle of poems in which the subject of giving gifts becomes the central motif. ("Gifts and Giving", CW, 78 1985, 571-574; also Charles Martin, Catullus, pp. 126-136.) Indeed poems 12-14 scrutinize how the urbani feel about this expression of friendship. In C. 12 the theft of a napkin (an act which is described as sordida and invenusta) is contrasted with the sentimentality of its original offering as the gift of Fabullus and Veranius to Catullus. In the usual blending of words indicating the social and literary endeavors of the urbani, the giving of gifts seems, in addition to its obvious primary literal meaning, to suggest the exchange of poems. Charles Martin sees the napkin and the unguent of poem 13 as the emblems of conviviality. They are important not because of their monetary value but because of their associations with a context: the napkin as a gift of Veranius and Fabullus and the unguent as a gift of his puella (received from Venus) (pp. 130-131). This conviviality among the urbani is what inspires the exchange of poetic endeavors such as occurs in carmen 50. Theft is a particulary condemnable act to the urbani because it interrupts the conviviality which is at the heart of their play. Indeed, Catullus in the spirit of poetic exchange, threatens to send 300 hendecasyllabics against Asinius unless he returns the napkin. [Here we see Catullus engaging in the subtle recollection of previoulsy recorded mindset-mood: the mention of napkins from Veranius and Fabullus and Spain recalls the joy of poem 9.]

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #12		Otium:social (dinner setting)	Atmosphere of conviviality and mutual exchange among the urbani elegantes is threatened by the invenusta theft of the napkin, itself a symbol of mutuality.

  Carmen 13: the gift of an invitation to dinner.
  Discussion:
  This poem, as mentioned above, continues the theme of giving. Here the gift is an offering to Fabullus of unguent from Lesbia who received it from Venus. As Skinner puts it, the perfume is "the essence of uenustas." This dinner invitation marked by its good humor and grace is about the mutual exchange of gifts and stands as a contrast to poem 12 in which this air of conviviality was interrupted by a theft. Poem 13's appeal to the senses and its reference to the gift of meros amores may suggest at a secondary level of meaning the offering of poetry as the gift of Catullus to Fabullus. (Bernstein, CJ, 80, 1984, 127-130.) However we interpret the gift, this elegant poem is one of social harmony among the urbani elegantes. It represents the joy of a "safe haven" that embraces friends of mutual good will.

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #13		otium: Primary--social(dinner setting) Secondary conviviality among	Atmosphere of mutuality and persons offering gifts; threat of poverty diverted by mutuality.

  Carmen 14: the gift of bad poetry.
  Discussion:
  While poem 13 may indirectly and secondarily treat the practice of exchanging poetry among the urbani, poem 14 brings the reader into intimate contact with this fun (ludus). The poet humorously pokes fun at Calvus who has sent Catullus a collection of poems of the "worst poets." Although there are several interesting aspects of this poem, its central importance in my opinion is its description of how Catullus may have lived in close relationship with a group of young poets who enjoyed and supported one another in literary sport. Their exchange of poetry created a parallel fictitious world of love, love poetry, things elegant and charming which Catullus defines as a part of his otium. In this literary world of love and charm, the psychology of the young, revolutionary types is expressed in the psychology of their literary, social, and love endeavors, all of which at times share vocabulary and coexist in parallel lines of meaning for the same piece. In poem 14A, 22, 36, 38, 42, and 50 we have clear statements about this literary production,both good and bad, and the poet's application of qualities of sal, lepor, venustas, etc. as measures of "worthy poetry." At the same time, the poetry itself in its content is used to describe the living of a life of sal, lepor, and venustas (as well as a life without those qualities).

  Poem		Topic	Psychological Setting
  #14		otium: social (literary)	Atmosphere of ludus poeticus and the exchange of poetic gifts; opposition of charming poetry (Catullus' poem) and the works of "worst poets." Some general threat of literary criticism, here treated humorously.