Catullus [ca 50 BCE, Rome. To review the text discussed, click here]
        The poet's concern: he says that certain Furius & Aurelius would be ready to
            journey with him as "comrades" (like a military expedition) to far places,
                but all  that he wants them to do is take a few harsh words to the woman that
            done him wrong:
                let her make promiscuous & violent love with a host of men,
                let her "rupture" them all,
                let her not expect any more  his love,
                    which has perished like a flower in the field, touched by the plow.
Horizons of Catullus' world:  Who? Where? When? What? Why?
            Characters? Places named or implied? Time frame? Actions & Reasons?
            Who: Catullus, Furius & Aurelius, woman & her "lechers."
           Places. Actual: not specified.
                   Evoked:  journey imagined from India (far to East &  South), to Parthians
                            (Persia), Arabs, Nile (Egypt, Africa), then up across the Alps (above
                            Italy), further northwards along the Rhine River to the North Sea & even
                            across to Britain.
           Times. Future (imaginary journey NOT to make, imaginary delivery of message,
                                        denial of further love by Catullus).
                         Present: lechery of the ex-girlfriend.
                         Past: his love ("as before"), its fall, broken like a flower by her plow.
           Actions & Reasons?
                In class, we asked about the similarities & differences between the two poets
                & their concerns & their horizons.
                    We took the broad reach of Catullus' imagination  as a measure of hurt, both
                    the hyperbole of the journey (from extreme East & South to extreme North &
                    West) & the metaphor that likens his love as the flower, the woman as the
                    plow. This, we noted, a  reversal of the common male/female roles, which
                    poignantly expresses the complexity & depth of his feeling.