D.P.L.
Professor M.H.
The Divine Body Humans are wired for sex. Physical interaction is possibly the most intuitive emotion we have as a species. Sex and body image are absurdly prominent in today’s culture, and have been since the beginning of written history. Sexuality is only a surface desire though. What lies beneath the surface is where a person’s true beauty rests. The poets Sappho and Petrarch are two very early writers that often focused on the human body, sexuality, and desire but in different ways. Sappho’s body of work is a reaction and praise to the exterior beauty of many individuals. Petrarch’s sonnets are a repeated effort to unearth the root of divine beauty. Sappho’s poems were more direct and in a relatable way.
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She is playing with that feeling of tension in the chest that people tend to have in matters of deep-seated emotions. It is common to read Sappho and notice emphasis on the body in her descriptions of both grief and bliss. Later in her life, Sappho uses the same analogy of her heart to describe herself as an old woman, “My heart’s grown heavy, my knees will not support me, that once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns.” It seems that her heart never grew lighter from her younger years, or even grew into a more intense pain. Having access to so many of her works allows scholars to observe a development in the character Sappho. Her subject matter turns from delight in others, slowly to dismay in their absence. What does not seem to change much is her approach of the subject matter. She still materializes her emotions in the form of the physical body in her later poems. Petrarch deals with his bodily desires in a different manner. His most famous series of poems are more or less descriptions of a woman Petrarch had much love for and how she made him feel. This collection is known as the ‘Canzoniere’. Petrarch’s sonnets focus more on the emotional side of his desires, while still using his body as a reference for the reader. In a selection from one of his sonnets, Petrarch writes, “Love found me all disarmed and found the way / was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes / which have become the halls and doors of tears”
Sexual drives are the basis of human behaviour because the goal of most humans is to find a sexual partner for comfort and reproduction. When the narrator visits his lover’s grave, he reminisces about the times with his lover and is overwhelmed by grief. The narrator longs to be loved as he says, “Then I saw it was getting dark, and a strange, mad wish, the wish of a despairing lover, seized me” (Maupassant 151). The loss of his lover penetrates his mental anguish as it is human nature to desire to be loved. Thus, he is greatly affected by the loss of his sexual partner, as sexual drives often dictate behaviour.
While the woman may outwardly profess her desire for her sexual partner, the dispassionate diction and detached tone within the sonnet suggest otherwise. For, in acknowledging her lover’s close proximity, she states that she is “urged”
Pain can be expressed in both sorrow and anger. Sappho creates great imagery in this fragmented poem by taking pain into natural moving actions. She expresses how her feelings change from hurt to anger and how heavy pain can really be. Sappho uses physical movement to express her emotions in different directions. She also emphasizes how she sees revenge is the ultimate goal in order to recover from that pain.
It could be safe to assume that Petrarch used the metaphors to portray love. His sonnets were really dedicated to Laura, but Laura seemed to be an imaginary figure and she went by the name of Laurel. Petrarch expresses two of the main ideas. One being about love and his love for Laura that does not fade with time and as she grows older. The second being that his love for her is very painful because it is not returned back to him. His first idea was that Laura remains extremely beautiful and he still wants her over the years - this is conveyed by physical descriptions made of Laura and using figurative language and imagery. Petrarch's style of poetry influenced later English poetry by establishing a main way to express feelings. Petrarch used
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
These differences aren’t biological as some researchers lead us to believe, claiming that men are more sexually stimulated by images, making it natural for women to be gazed at. Bordo argues that our culture determines what if acceptable for “women learn to anticipate, even play to the sexualizing gaze…in the process we learn how sexy being gazed at can feel-perhaps precisely because it walks the fine edge of shame” (135). Yet, with the use of erotic male images and her clearly sexually reaction to them, Bordo pushes readers to question why there are differences in how men and women are viewed and view each other. Who decides what is acceptable?
I personally love this poem for the idea of love and beauty that is in the eyes of the beholder. The fact that Sappho ties the culture and their stories of history along with her idea of beauty into one piece allows me to also think about what I might consider beautiful. And that beauty isn’t just beauty but it is love and respect. While I would never find beauty in anything war related I’m sure I’d have a different view if I lived during that time period but I can actually find a relation in myself to the people of Sappho’s time because of her work. I can imagine standing in awe of the army marching away to war as well as being in awe of a beautiful queen. While I find beauty in the ocean I’m sure I’d find beauty in the Greek
Franscesco Petrach’ sonnet “Upon the Breeze she Spread her Golden Hair” is a love poem in which the persona describes his love feelings about the subject, Laura. However, he laments that while his love for her is everlasting, it only results in pain because the feeling is not mutual thus not reciprocated by Laura. In fact, the structure and style of the poem help in conveying his message. Petrach uses metre, rhyme, and alliteration to impart the feeling of euphony in the audience regarding the poem. Nonetheless, there are few instances in which he deviates from the set structure, which mirrors real life situations and the love experience he describes as imperfect.
Marcus Aurelius was born on April 26th, 121 AD. He was born as Marcus Annius Verus. His family was a very wealthy family who claimed that they were descendants of Numa, The Second King of Rome. His father was Annius Verus and his mother was Domitia Lucilla.
Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.
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.
In another poem that Sappho wrote, “ A Prayer to Aphrodite”, Sappho describes anguished love. Sappho desires nothing more then to have this unrequited love returned to her arms. In this poem the magic of language calls Aphrodite forth and inspires her to do Sappho a favor. It inspires the goddess to give Sappho the power to bring this person back to the “glittering net” of her arms (19). This shows Sappho’s true desire to harness the power of love through the magic of language. If she can only write this poem beautiful enough then Aphrodite will take pity on her and give her what she most wants.
Sappho 96 is a poem that explores the beauty of love in the context of heartbreak and abandonment. The mood of the poem is almost wistful as Sappho seems to be clearly saddened by her lover, Anaktoria, leaving her; however, in true Sappho fashion, she can maintain the beauty she sees in her lover. The filled in lines serve to enhance the feelings of melancholy and passivity while giving the reader a deeper insight to the love Sappho has for Anaktoria.
In order to find human fulfillment, one must find God of Jesus Christ as well. Erotic loving is our desire for this fulfillment, which can be seen through eros. Human nature can be simply defined
She talks about a dangerous and poisonous love. My first thought when reading this poem, was “is this lady crazy love obsessed”. But the love displayed in this poem goes way deeper as she describes by saying, “My life is bitter with thy love; thine eyes, Blind me, thy tresses burn me, thy sharp sighs, Divide my flesh and spirit with a soft sound, And my blood strengthens, and my veins abound” (Consuming love). It is clearly evident, Sappho illustrates the deepest absolute love. Furthermore, she implies “the experience of love equates to that of dying. (Consuming love). Additionally, she adds spunk and pizzazz and tells you that love is harsh and that it can cause severe heartache. Along with her expressions of love and death, she is yearning to encompass the death by saying "I would my love could kill thee"(Consuming Love).