{"id":21020,"date":"2013-06-18T06:30:39","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T18:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=21020"},"modified":"2013-06-16T19:52:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-16T07:52:55","slug":"tuesday-poem-the-death-of-lesbias-sparrow-by-catullus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/06\/18\/tuesday-poem-the-death-of-lesbias-sparrow-by-catullus\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “The Death Of Lesbia’s Sparrow” by Catullus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Death of Lesbia\u2019s Sparrow<\/h3>\n

Mourn, O you Loves and Cupids
\nand such of you as love beauty:
\nmy girl\u2019s sparrow is dead,
\nsparrow, the girl\u2019s delight,
\nwhom she loved more than her eyes.
\nFor he was sweet as honey, and knew her
\nas well as the girl her own mother,
\nhe never moved from her lap,
\nbut, hopping about here and there,
\nchirped to his mistress alone.
\nNow he goes down the shadowy road
\nfrom which they say no one returns.
\nNow let evil be yours, evil shadows of Orcus*,
\nthat devour everything of beauty:
\nyou\u2019ve stolen lovely sparrow from me.
\nO evil deed! O poor little sparrow!
\nNow, by your efforts, my girl\u2019s eyes
\nare swollen and red with weeping.<\/p>\n

by Catullus,\u00a0(ca. 84 \u2013 54 BC)<\/p>\n

*An alternate name for Pluto, Roman God of the Underworld, & also for the underworld itself.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About The Poem:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I am currently doing a mini-series of poems on sparrows, which may morph to one on birds generally—I am not yet sure—and this poem by Catullus, the 3rd in the sequence of 116 remaining to us, is certainly one of the more famous. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About The Poet:<\/h3>\n

Catullus was born in Verona,\u00a0which was part of the Roman republic,\u00a0and as a young man in Rome became a member of a circle of \u201cnew wave\u201d poets. 116 of his poems survive and he is regarded as one of the great classical influences on western poetry, as well as being readily readable today.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Death of Lesbia\u2019s Sparrow Mourn, O you Loves and Cupids and such of you as love beauty: my girl\u2019s sparrow is dead, sparrow, the girl\u2019s delight, whom she loved more than her eyes. For he was sweet as honey, and knew her as well as the girl her own mother, he never moved from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21020"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21041,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21020\/revisions\/21041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}