Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/33

Rh Lesbia was incapable of deeper feeling than wantoning with a bird-pet. But the birdie's elegy is a yet more memorable poem,—one, too, that elicits the poet's element of pathos. Written to ingratiate himself with Lesbia, its burden is a loyal commemoration of his quondam rival; but a line or two, even if suggested by an Alexandrian idyllist, on the greed of Orcus and the brief life of all that is lovely and lovable, touch a chord which was never far from the vein of Catullus, though he is soon recalled to the sensible detriment which his lady's eyes are likely to suffer from her tears:—