Love and Sappho

Throughout the fragmented poem, Sappho expresses how someone else’s degrading words affect her and how she handles that pain. She is quick to judge and takes action after being put down. With the descriptions of her pain in movements, she tells a story of what caused her pain.

In this free-verse war poem, the idea of 'journey' extends itself to cover both the physical and emotional aspects of the subject matter of the poem. Repetition and word

We can see this in lines such as “I beg of you do not break with hard pains, O lady, my heart.” In fact, it was so emotional that it became a new standard for ancient students to learn. Plato mentions it saying: she was “one among the muses, the tenth muse”. In another instance Solos, an Athenian ruler stated “I shall learn it so that I may die”(). Taking this and applying to how important emotion and story was to the ancient Greeks we can see why this type of writing impacted the society around her. Also, another essential factor in analyzing this poem is that Sappho wrote in lyrics, and her poems were supposed to be accompanied by music. She composed her own music and refined her lyrics so much that it inspired a new lyric meter called Shappic meter(). The last thing she did that was very sensational at the time was not just referring to the gods but taking their point of view. In ancient Greece gods and mortals together were used in myths. Gods were in an upper scale and only talked down to mortals, but in Sappho's poetry they having conversations between each other. In this poem, Aphrodite comes down and appeals to Sappho asking “O, Sappho who is wronging you?” This was a new concept and was continued to be used even after most of Sappho's poetry was

Throughout the poem the tone and harmony is showing many different moods including shyness, anger and calmness. An example of shyness is at the start of the poem “softy, silently it swishes”, an example of anger is in the middle of the poem “it thumps, it sprays it rips at shores, its ozone spray”, and finally at the end of the poem calmness is shown, “it spends its strength, it sings, it sighs. The wave recedes”. One aspect of the poem I find intriguing is the alliteration and personification. For example, “it sighs, it sings, it seeks”.

Sappho’s poem, entitled Fragment 16, is of the lyrical style instead of the epic style we are used to in Homer’s Iliad. The lyrical style of poetry got its name because it was usually accompanied by a lyre while it was recited. It also was used to express more emotion rather than telling a story. This form of poetry seems to be more artistic rather than the story telling of epic poetry of the time. In this poem we are able to use the comparison of different imagery to understand a common theme within the poem itself. The reason for the interesting title of the poem is because most of Sappho’s poetry is now only found in fragmented forms. Most of Sappho’s writing is from 600 B.C.E.

Lyric poetry flourished during Greece’s Archaic Age. This was a time of rebirth for Greece. Literacy shifted from epics to lyric poetry as a result encouragement for a variety of voices to be heard. Lyric poetry is different from epic poetry because it is more personal to the author and is mostly their personal thoughts. In Greece, Sappho was unquestionably the finest composer of lyric poetry. Sappho’s poems were intimate. Love was always the evident theme.

Other authors after Homer also use reverence for a god’s domain as a tool to gain attention from the gods. In the Fragments, the author, Sappho, uses this tool to gain attention from the gods for herself. Sappho is a lover of love and her work shows her obsession with love as most of her partially retained and transcribed lyrics focus on love and its different forms. In supplication to the goddess Aphrodite, Sappho writes, “Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind… I beg you do not break with hard pains, O lady, my heart” (The Fragments, pg.3). Due to the fact that love is Aphrodite’s domain, Aphrodite pays attention to Sappho – someone who personifies and respects the power of love. Subsequently, after Sappho’s supplication, Aphrodite asks, “Whom should I persuade (now again) to lead you back into her love? Who, O Sappho, is wronging you?” (The fragments, pg.3). The use of the phrase ‘now again’ indicates that Aphrodite not only pays attention to Sappho, but that Aphrodite helps Sappho in issues of love repeatedly. Out of context, the phrase ‘now again’ also denotes and exasperated tone, however, the preceding context states that Aphrodite greeted Sappho smiling – a symbol of pleasure with another. Additionally, Sappho gains the attention of Hera because of her mention and praise of marriage in lyric 44, motherly love in lyric 132 and the praise of women throughout - all powers that lie under Hera’s domain. Recently in a newly discovered and transcribed lyric, Sappho says,

In the world today, there have been glorious war, there have been disappointing war. Be it in the 20th century or before the 20th century, the perception of war will never leave our minds. Furthermore, with the improvements of technology, military weapons and artillery has become of great help and at the same time of threat to humanity. Technology in war has definitely changed our perceptions and feelings towards war. These perceptions and feelings are often portrayed in a form of poetry. Due the horrors of modern warfare, there is an increase in the poems that spoke of the tragedy and futility of war.

In order to understand how Homer and Sappho defy the gendered norms for women, one must first know the Greek’s gendered norms for women. Greek women lacked personalities,

Sappho is an ancient Greek poet who is known for her capability in the theorization and processing of love, though in The New Sappho her curiosity and amusement tends to turn its perspective to the idea of age. While we are used to the common concept of love and appearance of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in Sappho’s poems, it seems that The New Sappho is both a play on her age, as well as a metaphor for her new subject. The poem’s title seems to suggest a rebirth or a renewal of being, yet in contradiction her physical form is aging.

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

There are different forms of love, ranging from the lust of one another to a familial fondness. Two poets, Sappho and Catullus, each represent a different type of love in their respective poems. Sappho, a female poet born in the early sixth century B.C. on the Greek island of Lesbos, was said to be the tenth Muse and a supreme lyric poet of her time. Her life remains mostly a mystery, but through her poems it has been found out that she had a husband, and a daughter named Cleis. Catullus, a Roman poet that lived from roughly 84 to 54 B.C., found inspiration in and was influenced by Sappho, opting to write about love rather than politics like the rest of the poets of his time. He also popularized the style of “love elegy” in poems. Sappho and Catullus, as seen in “Sleep, Darling” and “If Ever Anyone Anywhere” respectively, use diction, the speaker, figurative language, and imagery in similar and different ways to express varying versions of love.

The first stanza connotes a slight sense structure as the phrase “ and his buddies did too” is repeated after stating each action the soldier does. Moreover, the lines themselves are structured in such a way that suggests a deliberate organized form- especially in comparison to how the rest of the poem is written. Most interesting about the

When Sappho expressed herself through her wonderful poetry, she spoke on behalf of many women of her time. Interestingly, she lived through verbal expression and spoke about it so refined in her own poetic style. She knew what women in antiquity wanted and expressed it so well in her writing style.

Here is the interpretation and analysis of the poem based on the sections that respect the grammar and meaning of its sentences: