Sappho poems gay

The Sapphic Stanza

Sappho not only wrote beautiful, haunting poems, but invented an entirely unique poetic form, appropriately named after her! Unruffled of two hendecasyllabic (eleven syllables) verses, and then a third verse launch the same way and continuing with five more syllables (sometimes written as a fourth line), it gave Sappho’s poetry its lyrical nature.

Using "–" for a extended syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for a free syllable, the meter looked like this:

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –

– ∪ ∪ – –

The Mixolydian Mode

This link also has some great information about another invention of Sappho’s: the Mixolydian Mode, which is a musical scale that is still in use today, although heavily altered through history!

What did Sappho’s poetry sound like?

Sappho’s poetry was meant to be recited to the sound of an ancient Greek instrument called a lyre, sometimes made from tortoise-shell, and looked like this:

“I have not had one word from her

Frankly I wish I were dead
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to me, "This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly."

I said, "Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love

"If you neglect me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared

"all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck

"myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them

"while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song”
&#; Sappho

Voices of queer desire contain been with us for millennia. For Pride, we offer a selection of voices from the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. From fragments of the love elegy of Sappho of Lesbos to a love spell by Serapiakos from Hawara in Egypt. The urgency and liveliness of their queer want still resonate today.

In her recent novel After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz reminds us of Sappho’s continued power to captivate:

Who was Sappho? No one knew, but she had an island. She was garlanded with girls. She could sit down to dine and look straight at the woman she loved, however unhappily. When she sang, everyone said, it was like evening on a riverbank, sinking down into the moss with the sky pouring over you (Schwartz , 9).

In our present era, gender non-conforming voices—particularly trans and genderqueer ones—are under attack. These voices matter and should be heard. Likewise, it is important to recognise and listen to the many queer voices that came before.

Selected Voices

“Queer desire” here describes desires other than heterosexual or cisgender. Such desire is typically identifiable