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