Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ABSENT FRIEND, by SAPPHO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ABSENT FRIEND, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A glorious goddess in her eyes / were you, her comrade, and your songs
Last Line: And in her heart sick longing grows.
Subject(s): Absence; Aphrodite; Love - Erotic; Love; Mythology - Classical; Separation; Isolation


AGLORIOUS goddess in her eyes
Were you, her comrade, and your songs
Above all other songs she'd prize.

With Lydian women now she dwells
Surpassing them, as when day dies
The rosy-fingered moon excels

The host of stars, and light illumes
The salt sea and the cornland glows
With light upon its thousand blooms.

In loveliness the dew spills over
And with new strength revives the rose,
Slim grasses and the flowering clover.

But sadly up and down she goes,
Remembering Atthis, once her lover,
And in her heart sick longing grows.





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