Sappho: The Poems (Rev) - The Poetry Shop

Sappho: The Poems (Rev)

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Sappho: The Poems (Rev) - The Poetry Shop

Bandanna Books

Sappho: The Poems (Rev)

$6.95
Sale price  $6.95 Regular price  $11.95
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Sappho was perhaps the originator of the personal poetry genre. She lived on Lesbos a hundred years before the rise of Athens to pre-eminence. Long after her death, Plato praised her work as that of the Tenth Muse. Later eras, especially the early Christian church, saw her work as abominable because she dealt openly with sex and with feelings, so that her work was almost totally obliterated. A few new pieces emerged in 1950. Many poets have undertaken to translate her work. Sasha Newborn's version is personable, not academic. A Teacher's edition, the Supplement Edition of Sappho (www.createspace.com/3683159), contains a wealth of critical comment and background information on Sappho, her poetry, and her times; this was also compiled by Sasha Newborn. Sappho spoke in Aeolian Greek, and developed musical modes as well. She ran a school for girls that involved performances, presumably of her work as well as others, which would have combined dance, music, and poetry. Unlike the other great Greek poets, she did not write epics, only a few laudatory odes, and no drinking songs. Her delicately nuanced lines convey much more than the words on the page; one might call it an openness to life. Another book that centers on love, from the male perspective, is Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060), poetry by the young Dante and more than a dozen Italian poets reviving and refining the rediscovery of love that the Troubadours had celebrated.

Book Details

ISBN:
9780942208115
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
58
Authors:
Sappho
Published Date:
2013-02-25
Language:
English

About Sappho

Sappho (c. 630–570 BCE) was born on the island of Lesbos and is among the earliest lyric poets of the Western tradition whose work survives, though only in fragments. Ancient sources credited her with nine books of poetry; the most complete surviving pieces are the Hymn to Aphrodite and the Tithonus poem, the latter reconstructed from a papyrus identified in 2004. Plato is said to have called her the Tenth Muse. The Sapphic stanza, a metrical form associated with her, was later adopted by Catullus and Horace. The word "lesbian" derives from the name of her birthplace.

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