Catullus-Poem 3
The theme of this poem is to grieve for the sparrow, the pet of his “darling girl”, which has recently died. Catullus expresses how he believes that the death of this bird is unfair and untimely by saying such things as “evil shadows of Orcus, which all beautiful things you devour”. He starts off this poem by mentioning his girlfriend, and further explains the relationship between her and the sparrow, and then towards the end he says, “you stole the beautiful sparrow from ME”. So not only does the sparrow’s death upset his girl, but it also directly affects him.
The setting of the poem is not directly stated, but my imagination directly took me into an ancient Roman house with a girl crying on her Roman couch with her dead sparrow. Chronologically speaking, this takes place after the pet sparrow’s death (obviously), but this seems to be the only mention of a time frame.
The narrator may be Catullus himself, or anybody whose lover has lost a pet. Since a bird was usually a gift to a lover in ancient Rome (if I remember correctly), this story may allow for the narrator to be any man in Rome who is affected by something similar. The story seems to be in first and third person throughout. The narrator mentions “my” and “me” numerous times, but he also uses third person many times to describe the bird: “he was chirping continuously to his only mistress”. Second person is also used: “which all beautiful things you devour”: when speaking directly to Orcus. Based on the narrator’s use of “me” and “my”, I do consider the author to be the same person.
I feel as though the audience is meant to be whoever may be reading the poem. He seems to be complaining about death and mourning to whomever will listen!
Characters mentioned other than the narrator are his girl and her sparrow, who are the main focus of the story, and also Orcus, whom he curses for taking the sparrow away, and the Loves and Cupids, whom he “imperatively orders” to mourn for this tragedy! None of these characters speak or act directly in the poem; the narrator reports their actions and feelings.
The mood of this poem seems to start off melancholy, mentioning his darling girl and the fun times she used to have with her bird. It temporarily switches to anger towards Orcus and the evil deed of taking the sparrow in death.
The outside world appears to be the normal world at the time, seeing as he mentions Orcus, Loves, and Cupids. Such realistic things; love, sadness, and anger, occur in this short poem as in real life.
Before this poem, life seemed to be going very well for the narrator and his girlfriend. He mentioned how much fun they used to have by saying, “nor was he moving from her lap”. She loved the sparrow as it loved her.
The poem ends as it began: the girl is still extremely upset and displaying her emotions with swollen, red eyes, and crying. The mood goes from sad-angry-sad again, and it does not show any signs of improvement.
The theme of this poem is to grieve for the sparrow, the pet of his “darling girl”, which has recently died. Catullus expresses how he believes that the death of this bird is unfair and untimely by saying such things as “evil shadows of Orcus, which all beautiful things you devour”. He starts off this poem by mentioning his girlfriend, and further explains the relationship between her and the sparrow, and then towards the end he says, “you stole the beautiful sparrow from ME”. So not only does the sparrow’s death upset his girl, but it also directly affects him.
The setting of the poem is not directly stated, but my imagination directly took me into an ancient Roman house with a girl crying on her Roman couch with her dead sparrow. Chronologically speaking, this takes place after the pet sparrow’s death (obviously), but this seems to be the only mention of a time frame.
The narrator may be Catullus himself, or anybody whose lover has lost a pet. Since a bird was usually a gift to a lover in ancient Rome (if I remember correctly), this story may allow for the narrator to be any man in Rome who is affected by something similar. The story seems to be in first and third person throughout. The narrator mentions “my” and “me” numerous times, but he also uses third person many times to describe the bird: “he was chirping continuously to his only mistress”. Second person is also used: “which all beautiful things you devour”: when speaking directly to Orcus. Based on the narrator’s use of “me” and “my”, I do consider the author to be the same person.
I feel as though the audience is meant to be whoever may be reading the poem. He seems to be complaining about death and mourning to whomever will listen!
Characters mentioned other than the narrator are his girl and her sparrow, who are the main focus of the story, and also Orcus, whom he curses for taking the sparrow away, and the Loves and Cupids, whom he “imperatively orders” to mourn for this tragedy! None of these characters speak or act directly in the poem; the narrator reports their actions and feelings.
The mood of this poem seems to start off melancholy, mentioning his darling girl and the fun times she used to have with her bird. It temporarily switches to anger towards Orcus and the evil deed of taking the sparrow in death.
The outside world appears to be the normal world at the time, seeing as he mentions Orcus, Loves, and Cupids. Such realistic things; love, sadness, and anger, occur in this short poem as in real life.
Before this poem, life seemed to be going very well for the narrator and his girlfriend. He mentioned how much fun they used to have by saying, “nor was he moving from her lap”. She loved the sparrow as it loved her.
The poem ends as it began: the girl is still extremely upset and displaying her emotions with swollen, red eyes, and crying. The mood goes from sad-angry-sad again, and it does not show any signs of improvement.
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