Metre: elegiac couplets.

1	nosse: "to know", i.e. in the sexual sense. While this line is, in isolation, ambiguous - did Lesbia "know" Catullus alone or vice versa? - line 2 clarifies the matter. See the translation.
2	Lesbia's claim to prefer the poet to Jove echoes Poem 70, again in line 2.
3	dilexi tum: Note the emphasis on the past. Her lies have killed his love.
4	On the far-reaching effects of patria potestas, see R-L 291-293, particularly the cynical observation, "If a daughter by a formal marriage passed into the hands of a husband, she exchanged paternal for marital slavery." (292) Catullus does not mean a father's love as such, but a non-physical, even spiritual, as opposed to a carnal love. "The relationship between Catullus and Lesbia, as the poet envisioned it, did include an erotic component, [but] this element was grafted onto a pre-existing set of traditional ideals and expectations. The values and aspirations that characterize the poetic marriage between Catullus and Lesbia reflect great breadth of outlook and depth of understanding, since through them the poet reveals his awareness that human beings and human relationships do not exist in isolation but rather are parts of a complex social framework held togther by mutual ties and obligations." (Martha P. Vinson, "And Baby Makes Three? Parental Imagery in the Lesbia Poems of Catullus", The Classical Journal 85 (1989-1990). 52-53)
7	potis: OLD 1418-1419.

"The controlled and dignified description of the idealized past in the first half of the poem gives way to a rather less controlled expression of the realities of the present in the second half, with the dactylic movement of the last couplet suggestive of rising indignation rather than of dispassionate analysis. We may find confirmation of this interpretation in the increasingly forceful vocabulary of the second half of the poem [lines 5-7]." (J. A. Barsby, "Rhythmical Factors in Catullus 72, 75 and 85", Phoenix 29 (1975). 87)

"C., with the restraint that is one form of contempt, tells his mistress that he despises her - but still cannot tear himself free. These four patiently argued couplets are remarkable no less for their clarity of insight than for their precise formulation of a lost ideal." (Quinn¹, 400)

Clearly Quinn and Barsby are somewhat at variance. Is "patiently argued couplets" more of a surface judgement? Are Barsby's observations more penetrating?

Metre: elegiac couplets.

1	The scansion shows that meã is nominative and goes with mens; tuâ is ablative and goes with culpa. tua ... culpa: "C. is less concerned with pinning the blame on Lesbia than with stating the consequences for himself of her faithlessness." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
2	officio ... ipsa suo: "C. does not really blame Lesbia; his present anguish is the result of his own attitude of mind to her; it is almost an admission in retrospect that he should have known better." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
3	queat: subjunctive in a consecutive clause and, like fias and facias (4), subjunctive of conditioned futurity in an ideal condition, referring to future time.

"A single sentence, spread over four hard-hitting, ruthlessly clear-sighted lines, bitter rather than vindictive." (Quinn¹, 405)

Metre: elegiac couplets.

1	odi et amo: "Word order and elision transfer the emphasis to amo: the hating is taken for granted; what motivates the poem is that C. cannot resist the attraction of the woman he despises." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
2	excrucior: emphasised by position.

"The four lines of poem 75 become two. Poem 85 is the most perfect statement Catullus achieved of the torture a man goes through when he is pulled two ways." (Quinn², 107)

J. A. Barsby points to the considerable number of dactyls, elisions and short clauses as indicators of a rising level of emotion. ("Rhythmical Factors in Catullus 72, 75 and 85", Phoenix 29 (1975). 83-88)

See the penetrating and detailed discussion of the couplet in Quinn², 107 (bottom)-109.

Metre: elegiac couplets.

2	uere modifies dicere (1). amata est: Catullus speaks of his love in the past tense.
3	foedere: local ablative, here, for metrical reasons, without a preposition.
3-4	"The simple assertion of the first couplet is now rephrased in terms which stress what was really unique in the affair - C.'s concept of absolute, lasting fidelity. Note how much more emphatic (nulla ... ullo ... umquam) the second couplet is than the first." (Quinn1, ad loc.) "The pentameter is ruthlessly precise. The hexameter attempts an equal precision, by appealing to two concepts that are fundamental in Roman thought, fides and foedus." (Quinn2, 110)
4	tuo: equivalent to an objective genitive. The line contains three elisions. "Catullus not uncommonly resorts to heavy elision when expressing intense personal feeling. The effect aimed at seems to be a harsh, slurred rush of words." (Quinn1, note on 73.6)

Metre: scazons.

See issued printed notes: "Supplementary Material".

1	desinas: The jussive subjunctive addressing a particular person is less peremptory than the imperative. NB Woodcock 109; 126, Note (ii). The lines of the poem are all end-stopped (PDLT 280), which conveys the impression of bitter, choked emotion.
3	fulsere: an alternative form of the third plural perfect fulserunt. (KMP 113, ILH 53)
4	Lesbia called the tune; Catullus behaved like a dog. Cf. line 10.
5	nobis: royal plural. See again the note on Catullus, Poem 43.7. nobis is dative of the agent (basically a dative of person concerned), as often with passive verbs. (GL 354) Catullus refers to himself variously in the first, second and third persons throughout the poem, an indication of the intensity of his inner struggle.
6	ibi: best taken as local, "there", referring to the meeting place implied by quo (4).
7	nec puella nolebat: Total mutuality never existed.
8	An echo of line 3, but uere gives added emphasis.
9	non uolt: After the jarring pause engendered by the stark monosyllables come five imperatives (9-11) as Catullus tries to steel his resolve.
10	nec sectare: For this second person negative command Cicero would have written noli sectari. (GL 270) English usage tallies with Catullus's.
11	obstinata ... obdura: "The basic force of ob- ('in the way of') is repeated in obdura. The function of the will is to bar C. from surrender to his emotions". (Quinn1, ad loc.)
14	nulla: The adjective is used adverbially. (GL 317.2, Note 2) It is stronger than non. Cf. Philotimus non modo nullus uenit, sed ne per litteras quidem certiorem me facit. "Not only does Philotimus not come, but he does not even keep me informed by letter." (Cicero, Att. 11.24)
15	uae te: uae is usually followed by the dative. (GL 343.1, Note 1)
15-18	The string of anguished rhetorical questions suggests not so much a "you'll be sorry" sentiment as Catullus's sad recollection of joys now gone.
16	bella: He praised her beauty in Poems 43 and 86.
17	dicêris: future, as the scansion shows.
18	quem basiabis: He rejoiced in her kisses in Poems 5 and 7.
19	The line echoes line 11, just as 8 echoes 3. Compare a triolet, or roundelay, in which line 1 is repeated in lines 4 and 7; line 2, in line 8. See PDLT 1004-1005, which cites a lovely example by Austin Dobson.

See the discussion of Poem 8 in Quinn², 89-91, 93.

"The poet's ideas and feelings are not assembled tidily first and then versified. They unwind as the poem is written. It is essential if one is to understand Poem 8 to realise the shifting viewpoint and inconsistency of the speaker." (Quinn, The Catullan Revolution (1959), 93-94)

"Poems 8, 72 and 76 amply illustrate how Catullus employs multiple speaking voices to dramatize the lover's fragmentation." (Ellen Greene, "The Catullan Ego: Fragmentation and the Erotic Self", American Journal of Philology, 116.1 (1995). 78)

"The truly wonderful thing about the poem is the complete absence of self-pity. The poet describes a most crushing humiliation, describes it with minute precision, but at the same time he accepts it without whining, as inevitably as if it were an act of Nature. This supreme detachment in the midst of profound passion is due to the artistic discretion and maturity of the young poet." (E. Fraenkel, "Two Poems of Catullus", Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961). 53)

Metre: Sapphic stanzas.

7-8	septemgeminus ... Nilus: See OCD 1044-1045, s.v. "Nile". Catullus is referring to the Nile delta, a triangular-shaped tract of alluvium at the river's mouth, through which its distributaries, or channels, reach the sea. Fordyce is probably wrong to suggest colorat refers to bright colour: 320 km. below Khartoum the Nile is joined by its tributary the Atbara; this brings down a dark sediment which settles in the Nile delta.
11	Gallicum: There is some justification for the epithet. The Rhine's sources are in south-east Switzerland. From Basel, some 880 km. from the mouth of the river, the Rhine forms part of the Franco-German border, before entering German territory. Since ancient times it has had a profound influence on the diplomacy of Germany and Western European nations, including France.
13-24	After the eroticisms of 1-12 comes cold realism, devastating in its simplicity.
14	caelitum: OLD 251, s.v. "caeles", 2.
17	cum suis uiuat ... moechis: a sad contrast with the joyous uiuamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus of Poem 5.1. ualeat: a formula of leave-taking, here contemptuous.
17-20	"Here, at the emotional climax of the poem, the power of the male to rape has become transferred, against normal expectations, to the female: her male moechi are the passive victims of her rape, exploited by Lesbia for her own benefit." (Phyllis J. Forsyth, "The Thematic Unity of Catullus 11", The Classical World 84 (1990-1991). 462)
19	"In all the surviving works of Catullus, identidem occurs only twice - here, and in line 3 of Poem 51. And it can be no accident that in these two instances the word appears in the same place of the third line of a Sapphic stanza. Mackail is no doubt right in seeing in this striking repetition 'a stroke of subtle and daring art'. In this last message to Lesbia Catullus wants us to recall that earlier poem and to appreciate what a sad change has taken place in their relationship." (C. G. Cooper, ad loc.) The line is hypermetric: the last syllable of omnium is elided before ilia (20). The heavy elision of the line reflects intense personal feeling. (Quinn1, ad loc.)
21	respectet may well mean "look back". Recall the humiliating image of Poem 8.4. Alternatively, respectet could simply refer to happy times now past.
18	trecentos: an ironic echo of Poem 5.7-9, centum, centum, centum.
22-24	For the thought, compare - Wee, modest, crimson-tipp'd flow'r, Thou's met me in an evil hour; For I maun crush among the staure Thy slender stem To spare thee now is past my pow'r, Thou bonie gem. (Robert Burns, "To a Mountain Daisy, on Turning One Down with the Plough, in April 1786", stanza 1) Contrast Mozart's song "The Violet" (words by Goethe), in which the flower rejoices in being crushed by the girl it loves: Alas! The girl drew near And did not heed the violet, She trod it underfoot. It drooped and died, yet it rejoiced: If I must die, at least I die Through her, through her, Here, at her feet. Poor violet! It was a dear violet! (tr. Lindsay Craig) "The flower is not ploughed under (like the rest), but merely grazed by the plough in passing - and left lying; the two belong, as it were to different worlds, but a moment's contact suffices to destroy the flower." (Quinn1, ad loc.) "The plough is a symbol for Lesbia's brutal sexuality (note the sexual connotations of tactus, 24) ... Catullus is simply a peripheral casualty for her lustful progress." (Arkins 103) "The flos, commonly associated in ancient literature with the female (as in 62.39-40), is here instead associated with the male, i.e., Catullus; the plough, commonly associated with the male, now becomes a symbol of the female, i.e., Lesbia. The poem has come full circle: the man who threatened to rape the extensive outside world at the start of the poem [note penetrabit (2)] ends up 'deflowered' by a mere puella. The irony is both poignant and poetically masterful. Poem 11 should thus no longer be castigated for a lack of connection between its opening and closing scenes." (Phyllis Y. Forsyth, op. cit., 463-464)

"It is the only poem that presents the poet as having finally won release from his love." (D. R. Sweet, "Catullus 11: A Study in Perspective", Latomus 46 (1987). 519)

See also the discussion of Poem 11 in Quinn², 162-169, 175-179.

Metre: hendecasyllables.

1	nostra: royal plural. "But surely, if Caelius is Caelius Rufus, the reader must be invited to entertain the sense 'yours and mine', if only to reject it." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
1-2	Lesbia x 3: The repetition suggests Catullus can hardly believe the relationship has come to such a pass. He is in a highly emotional state. The emotion is emphasised by the total coincidence of verse ictus and word accent in the first two lines. "This emotion is further emphasised by the use of the poet's own name Catullus, by its collocation with unam and by the juxtaposed line endings unam/ ... omnes/." (Arkins, 65)
1-3	If someone were to read the poem for the first time with lines 4-5 covered up, the first three lines would give not the slightest clue to the shock of the last two. Sentimental dwelling on the past changes suddenly to cold, hate-charged realism. There is a sharp contrast between the depth of Catullus's love and her abandoned, loveless behaviour. When Cicero defended Marcus Caelius Rufus against a series of charges brought by Clodia, he referred scathingly to quadrantaria illa permutatione, "her usual farthing deal" with a baths keeper. (Pro Caelio 62)
2-3	quam Catullus unam ... amauit: a bitter echo of Poem 8.5.
4	quadriuiis et angiportis: The two combined are equivalent to "anywhere and everywhere".
5	glubit: OLD 767, s.v. glubo, which cites this passage as "obscene". "But perhaps C. means no more than that Lesbia strips her lovers of their clothes (and their cash)." (Quinn1, ad loc.)

Metre: elegiac couplets.

2	pium: On pietas, see JH, the note on line 49, and Barrow, The Romans (1949), 22.
3	fidem: OCD 595, s.v. "Fides".
3-4	"C. overstates his case. But the poem is, like Poem 8, an interior monologue (or a work of art purporting to be that), not the poet's apologia to the reader: we are intended to feel that C. has lost his sense of proportion." (Quinn1, ad loc.) nec foedere nullo: a pleonastic double negative. The two negatives strengthen each other. The usage is common in comedy, e.g. ne temere facias; neque tu haud dicas tibi non praedictum. (Terence, Andria 205) Apart from that, foedere ullo would have spoilt the metre.
4	numine: The numen was a major concept in Roman religion. (OCD 1054) How did people react to this powerful force, the "expressed will of a deity"? C. S. Lewis has an interesting and enlightening answer: In all developed religion we find three strands or elements, and in Christianity one more. The first of these is what Professor Otto calls the experience of the Numinous. Those who have not met this term may be introduced to it by the following device. Suppose you were told there was a tiger in the next room: you would know that you were in danger and would probably feel fear. But if you were told "There is a ghost in the next room", and believed it, you would feel, indeed, what is often called fear, but of a different kind. It would not be based on the knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him, but of the mere fact that it is a ghost. It is "uncanny" rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called Dread. With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous. Now suppose you were told simply "There is a mighty spirit in the room", and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less the mere fear of danger, but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking - a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it - and emotion which might be expressed in Shakespeare's words "Under it my genius is rebuked". This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous. (The Problem of Pain (1940), 4-5) Again, in a speech to the German League of Human Rights in 1932, Albert Einstein set out his personal credo, including these words: The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. For the case-usage of numine, see MBA 281.
5-6	multa ... gaudia: The wide separation of the adjective from its noun conveys effectively an impression of protracted effort.
6	The collocation of gaudia and amore produces a sad irony.
10ff	The sad, quiet reason which permeated lines 1-9 gives place to a cry of pain. excrucies: deliberative subjunctive. (MBA 149, especially Note 2)
11	quin: "Why not?" (OLD 1554, s.v. "quin", A.1)
12	dis inuitis: Lesbia is his only enemy now, not the gods.
14	lubet: an older form of libet. efficias: See the note on desinas, Poem 8.1.
15	peruincendum: On the spondaic hexameter see ILH 38. The impression of effort is heightened by the polysyllabic peruincendum. haec: Why not hoc, as in 14? See MBA 347.
16	facias: Again, see the note on desinas, Poem 8.1.
17	uestrum: On this use of the neuter of the possessive adjective uestrum, see MBA 291, Note 2.
19	puriter: "The self-righteous note troubles the modern reader. Is C. still too close to things to have regained his sense of proportion? Or does he draw too uncritically upon the clichés of tragic rhetoric?" (Quinn1, ad loc.)
20	hanc pestem perniciemque: The -que is explanatory, (JH 128-134) lit, "this pestilence, that-is (this) destruction". Translate "this deadly disorder", reproducing the alliteration of the Latin. mihi: this time, a dative of advantage.
21-22	A deliberate echo of Poem 51.1, bringing home the enormous change in Catullus from speechless adoration to joyless inertia.
25	et is explanatory: taetrum hunc deponere morbum simply expands ipse ualere. In five of the six feet of this line (all but the third foot), accent and ictus coincide, giving special emphasis to Catullus's prayer.

See the discussion of Poem 76 in Quinn², 115-128.

Metre: hendecasyllables.

The poem is an elaboration of the amoebean song, on which see OCCL 32 and PDLT 33.

1	Acmen: Her name implies she was at the "pinnacle" of her youthful loveliness.
5	"The primary meaning of line 5 is 'as much as he who loves as desperately as man can' - an expansion of line 4; but we half entertain as well a meaning something like 'ranking with him who endures the worst of deaths' - an anticipation of lines 6-7. If the ambiguity is not fully resolved, that is not unfitting on an occasion when love has muddled thinking." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
7	caesio: OLD 254, s.v. "caesius1".
8	"In some African tribes, sneezing when speaking to somebody means that God approves of what has been said. Sneezing symbolizes a manifestation of the sacred to reward or punish." (PDS 891) "We may suppose that Cupid, doubtful himself which was the propitious side, was anxious to make doubly sure." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
9	approbationem: cognate accusative, governed by sternuit.
11	ocellos: The diminutive is no different in meaning here from oculos. It does, however, fit the metre.
13	Septimille: The diminutive denotes affection. See the translation.
19-26	"The suspicion that C. has been speaking tongue in cheek, or is at any rate less emotionally committed to his tableau of idyllic love than he pretends, finds some confirmation in this concluding string of bland, emphatic pronouncements." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
20	amant amantur: asyndeton. (PDLT 64)
21	unam: emphatic by position; cf. uno (23).
21-22	unam ... Acmen mauult quam Syrias Britanniasque: In the words of the 'peacenik' and 'flower power' slogan of the sixties, Septimius prefers to make love (with Acme), not war (like Crassus and Caesar).
26	auspicatiorem: The rare comparative is "a piece of playful erudition". (Quinn1, ad loc.)

"Poem 45 is not only close in date to Poem 11 but also, perhaps, an ironic study in what might have been." (Quinn², 228)

"The poem is simultaneously a charming idyll of perfect love, an ironic questioning of that or any other love, and a sophisticated exploration of the creation of meaning and desire out of the myriad ambiguities of words and signs." (Edward Frueh, "sinistra ut ante dextra: Reading Catullus 45", The Classical World 84 (1990-1991). 21)

Metre: hexameters.

1	Olympo: For the local ablative without a preposition, see JH 126-127, " 'Going Places', or the absence of prepositions".
2	lumina: a poetic plural. (JH 134-135)
3	surgere ... tempus ... linquere: This use of the infinitive is poetic. Cicero would have used the genitive of the gerund, surgendi ... linquendi. (MBA 384; GL 428, Note 2) English usage, of course, tallies with Catullus's.
5	Hymenaeus: OCD 735. ades: imperative.
6	contra: The two choirs are to face each other. "The men are seated facing west and watching for the first sight of Hesperus as the sunset glow fades, because they are the ones who are eager to see the wedding begin. The girls, who claim to be against marriage, and do not want to see the star when it becomes visible, sit facing the men with their backs to the west." (D. A. Kidd, "Hesperus and Catullus LXII", Latomus 33 (1974).31)
7	sic certest: lit. "Yes, certainly it-is-he." ignes: poetic plural again.
8	uiden: a shortened form of uidesne. uiden ut perniciter exsiluere: lit. "How very-quickly they-have-leapt-up; do-you-see?" The two clauses, in other words, are set down side by side in coordination. There is no attempt to express any connection between them, however closely they might be connected in thought. (MBA 121; cf. MBA 129, Note, and 149, Note 1) This is known as parataxis, as opposed to hypotaxis, or subordination. In Classical Latin prose we should have expected hypotaxis, in the form of an indirect question: uidesne ut perniciter exsiluerint? (For ut as an interrogative adverb, see OLD 2112, s.v. "ut", A.1.) Parataxis is not unusual in English. It gives an effect of terseness and compression. So a savage might say, "Me hungry, me eat" (parataxis), where we sophisticates might say, "Since I am hungry, I shall eat" (hypotaxis). Consider too the following examples from Goodbye Columbus, by Philip Roth, who has a keen ear for American colloquialisms: "I'll see it I'll believe it"; "You don't know a little psychology these days, you're licked"; "What do you think, a chicken cleans itself?". An advertisement for a four-wheel drive vehicle proclaims, "You drive it - you buy it - it's that good!" And give a wide berth to anyone who threatens paratactically, "You toucha my car, I breaka you face."
9	canent quod uincere par est: lit. "They-will-sing, to-conquer which is appropriate."
11-19	This passage sounds for all the world like a football coach giving his team a pre-match pep-talk.
12	aspicite ... ut requirunt: parataxis again. See the note on line 8. meditata: This perfect participle of the deponent verb meditari has a passive meaning. (KMP 126)
13	memorabile quod sit: a relative clause of characteristic. (MBA 503)
14	quae ... laborant: We should expect the subjunctive in a causal qui-clause, (MBA 510-513) like those in 21 and 27.
15, 16	diuisimus, uincemur: The choir-master identifies with the group.
20	caelo: See the note on Olympo (1), and cf. 26.
20-25	The girls' tone is one of mock complaint.
23	castam donare puellam: The separation of adjective from noun is appropriate to the sense: the gift of the girl (to the hot-blooded young man) separates her from her chastity.
27	Apart from the initial qui, we have here the attractive pattern of a Golden Line. (ILH 47) The scansion shows desponsa goes with conubia; tua, with flamma.
28	pepigere: OLD 1289, s.v. "pango". The striking alliteration of p suits the sense of a contract being firmly concluded.
30	hora: ablative of comparison.
32	"Doubtless the lost lines of the girls' second contribution argues that Hesperus was the ally of thieves." (Quinn1, ad loc.) The boys then take an exactly contrary line in 33-35.
35	The planet Venus approaches nearer the earth than any other. It is known as the morning star when it appears in the east at sunrise and the evening star when it is in the west at sunset. Its daytime brilliance allows navigators to use it as a reference point.
36-37	ficto ... questu ... tacita mente requirunt: or so men have always liked to think? It's the favourite excuse of rapists.
39	saeptis ... hortis: The separation of adjective and noun gives an effect of enclosure, suited to the sense: the fenced-in garden allows the flower to emerge in seclusion (secretus nascitur).
39-40	Cf. the note on Poem 11, 22-24.
39-47	"To explain how the flower and the girl lose their attractiveness Catullus uses an ancient image, in which sexual intercourse with a virgin is seen in terms of a man entering an enclosed garden - the vaginal symbolism is obvious - and enjoying its blossom: just as the flower, once plucked, loses its bloom, so the girl loses the flower of her virginity." (Arkins, 141)
40	pecori: For the case-usage, see MBA 258.
42, 44	optauere: See the note on Poem 51.15, perdidit.
43-47	For the thought, cf. Mozart's worldly-wise song "Men Always Love to Nibble": But nibbling before the meal Spoils the appetite. Many a girl who failed to heed this, Lost what was her finest treasure And her lover as well. (tr. Lindsay Craig)
45	dum ... dum: The two adverbs - dum is not a conjunction here - are used correlatively. (OLD 579, s.v. "dum1", 1)
47	pueris iucunda ... cara puellis: an elegant chiasmus. See the note on Poem 7.5-6.
49-58	"The details of the imagery are graceful and charming; but, as in 33-6, the spirit in which the boys cap the girls' complaint is one of playful irony aimed at outwitting the girls, not at convincing them." (Quinn1, ad loc.)
52	flagellum: here "sprout, shoot". (OLD 708, s.v. "flagellum", 2)
53	coluere: another gnomic perfect.
54	ulmo: All names of trees are feminine in Latin, as is the generic word for "tree", arbor. Those with a taste for mnemonics may find the following useful: Males, mountains, months, the winds, the stream, And people masculine we deem: Isles are feminine; to these Add females, cities, countries, TREES: Indeclinables we call Neuter gender, one and all. (J. B. Allen, An Elementary Latin Grammar (1945), 118) So can an ulmus be a maritus? Grammatically, no; horticulturally, most certainly.
56	senescit: For the thought, compare the words of Shakespeare's character Parolles: Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of fashion; richly suited, but unsuitable. Your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears - it looks ill, it eats dryly. (All's Well that End's Well 1.1)
58	A B C D cara uiro magis ... minus ... inuisa parenti : another elegant chiasmus In inserting the refrain after 58 and ascribing the last section to the leader of the girls acting as a pronuba, or chief attendant of the bride, I adopt the very reasonable proposal of I. Goud, "Who Speaks the Final Lines? Catullus 62: Structure and Ritual", Phoenix 49.1 (1995). 23-32.
59	ne pugna: in Classical prose, noli pugnare or ne pugnaueris. (MBA 143) English usage tallies with Catullus's.
61	parere necesse est: So Parolles again: To speak on the part of virginity is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. (All's Well that End's Well 1.1)
63-64	tertia x 3: The bizarre mathematical flourish is heightened by anaphora.
64	duobus: similar to the dative found with resistere; in Classical prose, cum duobus. The bride is outnumbered by the other shareholders.

Metre: elegiac couplets.