Sappho - critical quotations

Sappho’s style; ‘Simplicity is sometimes the

Sappho’s style; ‘Simplicity is sometimes the

best vehicle of intensity’ – M L West 

Sappho’s style; ‘startling…how much life is

conveyed by so little’ – Carol Ann Duffy

Sappho’s style; ‘melodic, intimate,

sensual’ – Carol Ann Duffy 

Sappho’s style; ‘a confident and shining

poetic simplicity’ – Carol Ann Duffy

Sappho’s style; Sappho has the ‘ability to activate multiple perspectives within the same poem and

to elide differences between subject and object’ – Poochigian 

Sappho’s style; Poem 48 - ‘exquisitely

beautiful’ – Poochigian

Sappho’s style; Poem 22 ‘elides distinctions’ (Poochigian)

between speaker and Abanthis 

reactions to Sappho; Plato calls Sappho the

‘tenth’ muse

reactions to Sappho; ‘be inspired by the flower

of Sappho’s charms’ – Nossis (female poet circa 300BC)

reactions to Sappho; ‘the greatest poet who

ever was’ – Algernon Charles Swinburne

reactions to Sappho; Sappho was ‘respected as a poet but

feared as a role model’ - Matthew Barr, OCR Book

reactions to Sappho; ‘Revolutionary’ because ‘she gives a fully human voice to female desire for the

first time in western literature’ – Poochigian (writing about poem 16) 

reactions to Sappho; ‘one of the greatest

poets of all time – Freeman

reactions to Sappho; ‘First and greatest of

the women poets’ – Freeman

Doorkeeper poem serves as a metaphor for crossing the threshold

into married life’ - Ann Carson

reactions to Sappho; ‘she was one of the first poets to write out of the personal, moving away from

the narrative of the gods to the direct and human story of the individual’ – Carol Ann Duffy 

reactions to Sappho; ‘a great and

enduring poet’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘lyrics of love and desire,

of loss and longing’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘there is always something truly

youthful about Sappho’s spirit’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; She ‘had a poet’s and a

woman’s eye for the gorgeous’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; She speaks ‘to

our humanity’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘her openness to desire, her willingness to love,

her acceptance of a lover’s suffering’ – Carol Ann Duffy 

reactions to Sappho; ‘her spirit is

forever young’ - Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘brain and tongue

shattered by love’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘singingly

alive’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; ‘on the side of youth, and

loveliness, and love’ – Carol Ann Duffy

reactions to Sappho; Poem 16 ‘has attracted

much appreciation’ – James Davidson

relationship with the gods; Poem 1 - ‘shows an ‘intensely personal interaction

between Sappho and the goddess’  - Freeman 

relationships with the gods; Poem 1 - ‘preserved in this poem may be one of

the earliest examples of a Greek magic spell’

relationships with the gods; Poem 2 - ‘a profoundly

sensual prayer’ - Freeman

relationships with the gods; Poem 2 - ‘a song of powerful religious imagery evoking a mystical union of worshippers,

the goddess, and natural setting of her outdoor temple’ - Freeman

relationships with the gods; ‘the more a thing is bedecked with flowers,

the more delightful it is for the gods’ - Athenaeus

relationships with the gods; ‘whoever Aphrodite has not loved doesn’t know

what sort of blessing her roses are’ - Nossis (female poet, 300BC)

relationships with the gods; in Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ Eros is described as

‘limb loosening’

relationships with the gods; ‘Eros is both

pleasant and painful’ - Poochigian

the pleasures and pains of love; Poem 31 - ‘little else in the literature of the age captures the

physical sensations of erotic love’ - Freeman

the pleasures and pains of love; Poem 48 - Sappho offers ‘erotic emotion and experience expressed

in a stylized and ritualized way’ – Poochigian 

the pleasures and pains of love; ‘whoever Aphrodite has not loved doesn’t know

what sort of blessing her roses are’ - Nossis (female poet, 300bc) 

the pleasures and pains of love; in Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ Eros is described as

’limb loosening’

the pleasures and pains of love; Eros’ ‘predation is both

pleasant and painful’ – Poochigian

the pleasures and pains of love; Poem 94 - last stanza presents ‘the climax

of the encounter’ – Freeman 

the pleasures and pains of love; Poem 94 - ‘seems designed to give comfort in a way which would be almost maternal if

it did not linger over erotic details’ – Lyn Wilson 

the pleasures and pains of love; Poem 102 - displays ‘an amazing openness to youthful female sexuality’ that is

perhaps ‘too shocking’ for male ears – Freeman 

the pleasures and pains of love; explores both the ‘torment and

tenderness’ of love

the pleasures and pains of love; desire is both ‘violent

and tender’ – Poochigian

the pleasures and pains of love; Sappho’s ‘uncommon objectivity of her

demeanour towards her own extremity’ - Page

the pleasures and pains of love; a ‘bitter sweetness characterises

Sappho’s erotic songs’ – Poochigian

flower imagery; Poem 94 - ‘thoughts of flowers

bind females together’ - Poochigian

flower imagery; roses are an ‘especially powerful symbol of

female sexuality in classical poetry’ – Freeman 

flower imagery; ‘whoever Aphrodite has not loved doesn’t know

what sort of blessing her roses are’ – Nossis (female poet, 300BC) 

flower imagery; ‘the more a thing is bedecked with flowers,

the more delightful it is for the gods’ – Athenaeus 

marriage; ‘it is tempting to see the emphasis on bridal virginity as form of masculine oppression against younger women, lest they

dare enjoy their own sexuality and thus reduce their value as commodity to a future husband’ - Freeman, Searching for Sappho

marriage; ‘a woman who leaves her house ought to have reached that stage of life

when those who ask who see her don’t ask whose wife she is but whose mother she is’ - Hyperides, 4th century orator

marraige; Poem 112 + wedding songs more generally? sees Aphrodite ‘enlisted in the service of social institutions that

make for continuity and stability’ - Segal

attitudes to men and women; Poem 16 - one of the few texts which break the silence of women in antiquity, an instant in which

women become more than the object of man’s desire’ – Dubois 

attitudes to men and women; Poem 22 - the singer ‘does not attempt to impose her will upon the person she loves but instead, through

engaging appeals, tries to elicit a corresponding response from her’ – Skinner

attitudes to men and women; ‘What’s a man but

a walking penis?’ – Aristophanes, ‘Lysistrata’

attitudes to men and women; lesbiazein was the ancient Greek verb for

performing oral sex on a man

attitudes to men and women; ‘men are ashamed to speak of, do

and intend shameful things’ – Aristotle (rhetoric)

attitudes to men and women; ‘because women poets are emotionally disturbed, their poems are psychological outpourings, that is, not intellectual

but ingenuous, artless, concerned with their inner emotional lives’ -M Leftkowicz

‘more than simply a love song, the poem is a quasi-philosophical treatise

on the abstract notion of desire’ – Poochigian 

Poem 22 - the ‘circular Sapphic law according to which beauty demands love and

love, in turn, creates the beautiful’ – Burnett 

Poem 94 - presents a ‘past conversation framed

by a poetic present’ – Poochigian

the saying ‘unrivalled, like a Lesbian’ was used

to praise those excellent in song

‘the Sapphic persona thrives on activity and passion. deprived of these things,

she lapses into a languorous state.’ – Poochigian 

for ‘the young woman moving from the safety of her parents’ home, or the sensual female environment of the Sapphic community,

the experience is perhaps more ambivalent than this unqualified festivity would suggest’ - Lyn Wilson