English translations of the ‘kiss’ and ‘sparrow’ poems, Catullus has had a huge influence on the shaping of English love poetry. And therein lies the challenge. Because Catullus’s poetry forms a significant strand of our shared poetic dna, a poet working in English must first translate Catullus in order to understand his or her own work and the work of their generation.

works cited Josephine Balmer (translator), Catullus: Poems of Love and Hate (Tarset: Bloodaxe Books, 2004) Daisy Dunn, Catullus’ Bedspread: the Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet (London: William Collins, 2016) Brad Gooch, City Poet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993) Robert Lowell, Imitations (London: Faber and Faber, 1962) Charles Martin, Catullus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) Jacob Rabinowitz (translator), Catullus’s Complete Poetic Works (Dallas, Texas: Spring Books, 1991) M. B. Skinner, Catullus’ Passer: The Arrangement of the Book of Polymetrics (Salem, New Hampshire: Ayer Company, 1992) D. F. S Thomson, Catullus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, (rev.) 1998) A. L. Wheeler, Catullus and the Traditions of Ancient Poetry (London: Cambridge University Press, 1964) Thornton Wilder, The Ides of March (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961) T. P. Wiseman, Catullus and his World: A Reappraisal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) Celia and Louis Zukofsky (translators), Catullus (London: Cape Goliard Press, 1969)

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