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
morning stars together
Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.
limbs
How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away
beach rubble ifs
If you are squeamish Don't prod the beach rubble.
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.
love heaven earth
From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.
love-is fables fantasy
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
men beam roof
Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.
heart mountain uprooting
Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping desolate mountains, uprooting oaks.
fall wind mountain
Love, like a mountain-wind upon an oak, falling upon me, shakes me leaf and bough.
music tortoises shells
I took my lyre and said: come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument.
lying muse immortality
To me the Muses truly gave / An envied and a happy lot: / E'en when I lie within the grave, / I cannot, shall not, be forgot.
sleep moon midnight
The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.
bees honey caution
No honey for me, if it comes with a bee.