Sappho
Sappho
Sapphowas a Greek lyric poet from the island of Lesbos. She was born sometime between 630 and 612 BCE, and it is said that she died around 570 BCE, but little is known for certain about her life. Sappho's poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, and she was considered one of the canon of nine lyric poets. However, most of her poetry is now lost, and survives only in fragmentary form...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPoet
gold dawn thieves
In gold sandals / dawn like a thief / fell upon me.
lying moon sky
The moon has set In a bank of jet That fringes the Western sky, The pleiads seven Have sunk from heaven And the midnight hurries by; My hopes are flown And, alas! alone On my weary couch I lie.
beach rubble ifs
If you are squeamish Don't prod the beach rubble.
limbs
How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away
sensual bittersweet limbs
Love - bittersweet, irrepressible - loosens my limbs and I tremble.
spring flower earth
Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery
responsibility wealth virtue
Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.
two mind knows
I do not know what to do, my mind's in two.
bees honey caution
No honey for me, if it comes with a bee.
song sky mars
Builders, raise the ceiling high, Raise the dome into the sky, Hear the wedding song! For the happy groom is near, Tall as Mars, and statelier, Hear the wedding song!
thinking two sky
I would not think to touch the sky with two arms
dance moon dancing
Dancing up the full moon Round some fair new altar Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass.
water flow body
I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions.
death boon ill
Death is an ill; 'tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.