 The tone is grief-stricken and tender, with Catullus trying to give the best gift he had to bestow (a poem) on his brother, who was taken prematurely.The last words, "Hail and Farewell" (in Latin, "ave atque vale"), are among Catullus' most famous; an alternative modern translation might be "I salute you...and goodbye".The meter is elegiac couplet, which was usually employed in love poetry, such as Catullus' addresses to Lesbia.