Catullus 2 - Poetic Features

Poetic Features

Catullus was renowned for his meticulous care in crafting poems, even those with seemingly trifling content. This poem is written in hendecasyllabic verse, a meter in which each line has eleven syllables and four poetic feet. Consistent with other ancient Greek and Latin works, the feet are not defined by stressed and unstressed syllables as they are in English poetry. Rather, they are marked by long (L) and short (s) forms of the vowels. Thus, a typical hendecasyllabic line has the meter

L L | L s s | L s | L s | L s

spondee | dactyl | trochee | trochee | trochee

However, there is some flexibility in this pattern, particularly in the first and last feet. An example of English hendecasyllabic verse has been provided by Tennyson

O you chorus of indolent reviewers,
Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,
Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem
All composed in a metre of Catullus...

Other artful devices are woven into the text of Catullus 2. Lines 2-4 represent a tricolon crescendo, in which the three relative clauses become gradually longer in length: quem ludere, quem in sinu tenere, and cui primum digitum dare appetenti et acris solet incitare morsus. The repeated "eee" sounds (corresponding to the letter "i" in Latin) evoke the songbird's peeping (pipiabat in Catullus 3), e.g., (quicum ... in sinu ... cui primum ... appetenti ... acris ... nitenti ... iocari). The "a" sounds may also convey images: the poet's sighs of longing; an "ouch!" at being bitten sharply (appetenti, "pecking" and acris, "sharp"); and a comforting sound (solaciolum, "small comfort", and acquiescat, "calms").