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Sapphics

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Sap‧pho /ˈsæfəʊ/(6th century BC) an ancient Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesbos. Her poems are mostly about love and personal feelings, including love between women, and she is especially admired by lesbians.The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form spanning four lines (originally three: in the poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus, there is no line-end before the final Adonean).Classical Greek and LatinThe form is two hendecasyllabic verses, and a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five additional syllables (given as the stanza's fourth verse in ancient and modern editions, and known as the Adonic or adonean line).Using "–" for a long syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for an "anceps" (free syllable), and displaying the Adonic as a fourth line:– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –– ∪ ∪ – –SapphoWhile Sappho used several metrical forms for her poetry, she is most famous for the Sapphic stanza. Her poems in this meter (collected in Book I of the ancient edition) ran to 330 stanzas, a significant part of her complete works (and of her surviving poetry: fragments 1-42). It is not clear if she created it or if it was already part of the Aeolic tradition; according to Marius Victorinus (Ars grammatica 6.161 Keil), it was invented by Alcaeus but then used more frequently by Sappho, and so is more strongly associated with her.Sappho's most famous poem in this metre is Sappho 31, written in the Aeolic Greek dialect of her home island of Lesbos, which begins as follows:φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισινἔμμεν᾽ ὤνηρ, ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοιἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φωνεί-σας ὐπακούει.phaínetaí moi kênos ísos théoisinémmen᾽ ṓnēr, óttis enántiós toiisdánei kaì plásion âdu phōneí-sas upakoúei."That man seems to me to be equal to the godswho is sitting opposite youand hears you nearbyspeaking sweetly."Other poets

Sappho Ancient Greek Aeolic Verse X Island Poems