Sappho's Poems, Poem One - Deep Feelings.

The first of Sappho’s poems, in reading 1:19, is a very passionate description of how love paints pictures in our minds of the object of our love. A woman, most likely Sappho, tells of the man she is in love with using vivid, concise imagery. “I can’t speak – my tongue is broken”; (Fiero, Sappho pg. 120 lines 10 - 11). This poem speaks of very deep emotion that is felt to the core of her being unto a sense of death with the intensity of the rapture she feels over this man she loves. “…I turn paler than dry grass. At such times death is not far from me” (Fiero, Sappho pg. 120 lines16 - 18). Perhaps she is admiring a hero of battle or someone who has high qualities of goodness toward others, or a beautiful god-like man who is a leader or ruler.

I have felt this kind of passion and relate strongly to Sappho’s feelings about this man she loved. I do not think there is any thing more incredible than the passion of rapture a woman feels about a man worthy of such high feeling. She knows he is amazing, wonderful, a good man. “He is more than a hero, a god in my eyes…” (Fiero, Sappho pg. 120 lines 1-2). He must be beautiful, handsome and pleasing to her eyes. I know how that feels. It is rare to find someone who you feel this way about. I wonder if he returns her favor.

This poem reminds me of how I have felt about a man in the past and contributes to my thoughts and feelings by providing clearer meanings to my feelings, which I could not put into words. “I drip with sweat; trembling shakes my body…” (Fiero, Sappho pg.120 lines 15-16).

Sappho was of the Hellenic culture and wrote this lyric poem, which is meant to be sung by its self or accompanied by a lyre or other instrument. The expression of Classical style in this poem is very interesting in that the few words used convey so much emotion and feeling with great intensity. “…a thin flame runs under my skin;…” (Fiero, Sappho pg. 120 lines12 - 13). This poem is culturally significant because expression through art forms, such as poetry, is disciplined and timeless. Each culture and time period has its own forms of art that help us understand the development of human kind over the centuries. This is a beautiful example of lyrical poetry written in this time period (610-580 B. C. E).

Works Cited:
Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition Book One. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2006. (Sappho pg. 120, first poem, lines 1 - 19)