All Topics  
Sapphic stanza

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Sapphic stanza
 
 
  Topics Sapphic stanza Topic Home

The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho
Sappho

Sappho...
, is an Aeolic verse
Aeolic verse

Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Greece Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect....
 form spanning four lines (more properly three, in the poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus, where there is no word-end before the final Adonean).

The form is two hendecasyllabic verse
Hendecasyllabic verse

The hendecasyllabic verse is a quantitative Meter used in Ancient Greek Aeolic verse, in scolia, and later by the Roman poet Catullus. Each line has eleven syllables, hence the name....
s, and a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five additional syllables (given as the stanza's fourth verse in ancient and modern editions, and known as the Adonic
Adonic

An adonic is a unit of Aeolic verse, a five-syllable metrical foot consisting of a dactyl followed by a trochee. The last line of a Sapphic stanza is an adonic....
 or adonean line).

Using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps
Anceps

In Greek language and Latin Meter , an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed....
" (or free syllable):

- u - x - u u - u - - - u - x - u u - u - - - u - x - u u - u - - - u u - -

While Sappho
Sappho

Sappho...
 used several metrical forms
Meter (poetry)

In poetry, the meter is the basic rhythm of a verse . Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order....
 for her poetry, she is most famous for the Sapphic stanza.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sapphic stanza'
Start a new discussion about 'Sapphic stanza'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho
Sappho

Sappho...
, is an Aeolic verse
Aeolic verse

Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Greece Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus of Mytilene, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect....
 form spanning four lines (more properly three, in the poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus, where there is no word-end before the final Adonean).

The form is two hendecasyllabic verse
Hendecasyllabic verse

The hendecasyllabic verse is a quantitative Meter used in Ancient Greek Aeolic verse, in scolia, and later by the Roman poet Catullus. Each line has eleven syllables, hence the name....
s, and a third verse beginning the same way and continuing with five additional syllables (given as the stanza's fourth verse in ancient and modern editions, and known as the Adonic
Adonic

An adonic is a unit of Aeolic verse, a five-syllable metrical foot consisting of a dactyl followed by a trochee. The last line of a Sapphic stanza is an adonic....
 or adonean line).

Using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps
Anceps

In Greek language and Latin Meter , an anceps syllable is a syllable in a metrical line which can be either short or long. An anceps syllable may be called "free" or "irrational" depending on the type of meter being discussed....
" (or free syllable):

- u - x - u u - u - - - u - x - u u - u - - - u - x - u u - u - - - u u - -

While Sappho
Sappho

Sappho...
 used several metrical forms
Meter (poetry)

In poetry, the meter is the basic rhythm of a verse . Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternating in a particular order....
 for her poetry, she is most famous for the Sapphic stanza. Her poems in this meter (collected in Book I of the ancient edition) ran to 330 stanzas, a significant part of her complete works (and of her surviving poetry: fragments 1-42). It is not clear if she created it or if it was already part of the Aeolic
Aeolic Greek

Aeolic or Aeolian Greek is a Linguistics term used to describe a set of rather Archaic period in Greece Greek language sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia , in Lesbos Island and in other Greek colonies....
 tradition; according to Marius Victorinus (Ars grammatica ), it was invented by Alcaeus but then used more frequently by, and so more strongly associated with, Sappho.

Use by other poets


Sappho's
Sappho

Sappho...
 contemporary and countryman, Alcaeus of Mytilene, also used the Sapphic stanza.

A few centuries later, the Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 poet Catullus
Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Roman poet of the 1st century BC. His work remains widely studied, and continues to influence poetry and other forms of art....
 admired Sappho's work and used the Sapphic meter in two poems, Catullus 11 and Catullus 51. The latter is a rough translation of Sappho's poem 31. Sapphics were also used by Horace
Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
 in several of his Odes, including Ode 1.22:

Integer uitae scelerisque purus
non eget Mauris iaculis neque arcu
nec uenenatis grauida sagittis,
Fusce, pharetra...

The Sapphic stanza was imitated in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, controversial in his own day....
 in a poem he simply called Sapphics:

So the goddess fled from her place, with awful
Sound of feet and thunder of wings around her;
While behind a clamour of singing women
Severed the twilight.

Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an United States poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , celebrating his friends who were members of the Beat Generation and attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States....
 also experimented with the form:

Red cheeked boyfriends tenderly kiss me sweet mouthed
under Boulder coverlets winter springtime
hug me naked laughing & telling girl friends
gossip til autumn

External links