A report on Catullus 11

Poem by Catullus.

- Catullus 11

2 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Alcaeus and Sappho, the two great poets of Lesbos. Attic red-figure calathus, c. 470 BCE

Sapphic stanza

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Aeolic verse form of four lines.

Aeolic verse form of four lines.

Alcaeus and Sappho, the two great poets of Lesbos. Attic red-figure calathus, c. 470 BCE
A papyrus manuscript preserving Sappho's "Fragment 5", a poem written in Sapphic stanzas
Algernon Charles Swinburne, around the time he published "Sapphics"

A few centuries later, the Roman poet Catullus admired Sappho's work and used the Sapphic stanza in two poems: Catullus 11 (commemorating the end of his affair with Clodia) and Catullus 51 (marking its beginning).

Modern bust of Catullus on the Piazza Carducci in Sirmione.

Catullus

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Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes.

Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes.

Modern bust of Catullus on the Piazza Carducci in Sirmione.
Catullus at Lesbia's by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Bithynia within the Roman Empire
Catullus et in eum commentarius (1554)
Lesbia, 1878 painting by John Reinhard Weguelin inspired by the poems of Catullus

Catullus twice used a meter that Sappho was known for, called the Sapphic stanza, in poems 11 and 51, perhaps prompting his successor Horace's interest in the form.