Book #50

I Hate and I Love by Catullus

Dazzling modern lyrical poems from Catullus - by turns smutty, abusive, romantic and deeply moving. 

I still can’t do poetry, although it was difficult not to understand what was going on here.

Catullus has the hots for this woman big time, the whole ‘can’t eat, can’t sleep’ shebang. Each of these poems professes his undying love for her, and the fact he hates how much the love he has for her affects him.

So I got it, but I didn’t enjoy it. It’s very rare for a poem to evoke anything in me. Sitting down to absorb a collection like this, particularly one which is so repetitive in its subject matter, is a complete chore. Having said that, I very much doubt I would love anyone so much as so sit down and write as many poems as Catullus evidently has. Maybe the problem isn’t in poetry, and more in the fact I’m an emotionless sociopath.

I wonder whether I should skip over the poetry compilations in the Little Black Classics range, or whether that would be giving up of the worst kind. Something to ponder.

~*Catullus 4 Lesbia*~