Catullus Poetry

I find Catullus amusing because just by devoting himself entirely to poetry, he was rebelling against what was expected of him in upper-class Roman society. He uses colloquial language in his work and was thus acknowledged as one of the Poetae Novi, or “Neoteric Poets.” He is truly revolutionary as a poet, for he ignores the public audience and writes passionately about his personal experience for an audience of fellow-poets only. Many of his poems examine his affection for his two great loves, Clodia and Juventius.

Because Catullus was an admirer of Sappho, and he is considered to have used a meter that Sappho developed, called the Sapphic strophe, which is an Aeolic verse form spanning four or three lines.