Catullus 51

Synopsis

Catullus 51 is a poem by Roman love poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BC). It is an adaptation of one of Sappho's fragmentary lyric poems, Sappho 31. Catullus replaces Sappho's beloved with his own beloved Lesbia. Unlike the majority of Catullus' poems, the meter of this poem is the sapphic meter. This meter is more musical, seeing as Sappho mainly sang her poetry. Catullus is not the only poet who translated Sappho’s poem to use for himself: Pierre de Ronsard and Salvatore Quasimodo are also known to have translated a version of it.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Book

Genres

poetry

Created by

Catullus