Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SAPPHO, by FRANCES BALLMAN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SAPPHO, by                    
First Line: Sappho must have laughingly chided scandal
Last Line: Still from them rises.
Subject(s): Sappho (610-580 B.c.)


Sappho must have laughingly chided scandal
Mongers who sought vainly to drown her dripping
Pen, and smiled when delicate fragments floated
Out on her parchment.

Soft inflections molded in tuneful lovesongs
Sweet with Grecian euphony, told of passions,
Fires and personalities, which like music
Fell from metres.

Odes as fresh as evergreens from her native
Hillsides linger hauntingly, and as fragrance
From an ancient Attic Urn mystic perfume
Still from them rises.





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