Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics
by Sappho, Bliss Carman
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Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. F all the poets (5 all the lovers of poetry should be asked to name the most precious of the price less things which time has wrung in tribute from the triumphs of human genius, the answer which would rush to every tongue would be the lost poems of Sappho. These we know to have been jewels of a radiance so show more imperishable that the broken gleams of them still dazzle men's eyes, whether shining from the two small brilliants and the hand ful of star-dust which alone remain to us, or reflected merely from the adoration of those poets of old time who were so fortunate as to witness their full glory. For about two thousand five hundred years Sappho has held her place as not only the supreme poet of her sex, but the chief lyrist of all lyrists. Everyone who reads acknowledges her fame, con cedes her supremacy; but to all except poets and Hellenists her name is a vague and uncompre hended splendour, rising secure above a persistent mist of misconception. In spite of all that is in these days being written about Sappho, it is perhaps not out of place now to enquire, in a few words, into the substance of this supremacy which towers sounassailably secure from what appear to be such shadowy foundations. show lessTags
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207+ Works 6,771 Members
Sappho, whom Plato (see Vols. 3 and 4) called "the tenth Muse," was the greatest of the early Greek lyric poets. She was born at Mytilene on Lesbos and was a member---perhaps the head---of a group of women who honored the Muses and Aphrodite. Her family was aristocratic; it is said that she was married and had a daughter. Her brilliant love show more lyrics, marriage songs, and hymns to the gods are written in Aeolic dialect in many meters, one of which is named for her---the Sapphic. Mostly fragments survive of the nine books she is thought to have authored. Her verse is simple and direct, exquisitely passionate and vivid. Catullus, Ovid, and Swinburne (see Vol. 1) were among the many later poets she influenced. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Disambiguation notice
- Bliss Carmen is more than a translator. He actually tried to fill in some of Sappho's fragments. This work should not be combined with the original or other translations.
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 6
