2: Next, I would say poem 2 came in. At this point, Lesbia is playing with her bird. I chose this to be metaphoric towards her husband. She plays with him and acts like she loves him, but Catullus "knows" that she does it all thinking about him. After all, who's the cunning linguist here?
83: Then, I'd say poem 83 comes along. Catullus is now pretty confident of what he "knew" in poem 2, so he thinks it must go without questioning that Lesbia is just bursting at the seems with love for him and isn't even hiding it that hard from her husband, but he's too stupid to notice. Maybe, maybe not. Probably not.
3: This is where I think poem 3 comes in. Lesbia's husband dies. "How dare you kill him," says Catullus. "Why would you do something to make my poor, poor Lesbia sad. Can't you see she's already sad enough not being with me every second of every day?" Maybe he wasn't quite so blatant, but that's basically what Catullus is feeling in that moment (The character Catullus, not the poet).
5, 7: I think poem 5 and 7 come in here (in that order). They both compliment one another (I imagine 7 to be an extension of 5) in that they ask Lesbia to kiss Catullus an unreasonable amount of times. This is probably at a point in time when Lesbia's husband is dead, so there's nothing holding back the love between Lesbia "and Catullus." Yep. Just Catullus. She's not loving anybody else.
70: I'd put Catullus 70 here. He suddenly realizes that Lesbia doesn't really love him. Maybe he asked for her to marry him and she declined, saying that it wan't like that or something, but he found out. Then he gets mad.
8: He's trying to hold it together now. He's going to pull through this. Obdura. Who else will love her, now anyway... wait. WHO ELSE WILL LOVE HER!?! Wait a second, I bet Catullus isn't her only lover!
| Oh no you didn't! |
75: He can't love her, but he can't not love her either. #SoTornRightNow
85: This is eating at him now. He can't even write more than 2 lines.
72: Now he's getting a bit more logical as time soothes his emotional scars. He rationalizes it. The thing that is driving him to her so much is nothing but lust, while he has lost the R-E-S-P-E-C-T he once had for her.
11: Catullus compares himself to a flower being pulled in by the plow that is Lesbia. She's not a kind person who has gently picked him from the soil. She's a heartless plow that ripped him out of the ground along with dozens of others she cares no more about.
87: I imagine that some time has passed (but not a lot, maybe a couple years) since 11 now. Catullus is looking back with pride. He loved her so much. What he doesn't mention is how much she didn't, almost as a sort of way of saying that he's over her and willing to move on and be the bigger man while she is a heartless scumbag. He doesn't say anything about what she is, but he implies it in a way that makes him seem nice still. Genius!
109: Now I imagine quite a bit of time has passed. He is looking back on it and wishes just for that moment that things had turned out differently. He wishes the gods could turn back time and make her statements of love truthful, not like what they were in 70. Alternatively, this could be directly after 70, in the moment, as a more lustful, "GODS, PLEASE MAKE HER LOVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!"
Off Topic:
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| Catullus: I can't help but think of this every time I read his name anywhere. |

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