Hi Kent
The Sappho doesn't work for me. It was quite interesting wondering
why; I think it's because the eroticism lacks a certain (female?)
delicacy, and implicitly assumes a split between physical and psychic
eroticism which I can't see in her work. The god does not "do"
Sappho (or the lyric poet); rather, her soul is a kind of burning
glass; she may be seized by Eros, and may suffer, but the pain is
emotional and the lack which spells desire: and its fulfilment is
spiritually sensual, a cup of "nectar lavishly mingled with joys".
In other words, her poetry seems in a crucial way more _innocent_ -
as Sappho herself said, "I have a gentle spirit". I mean this sort
of thing -
Now she stands out among
Lydian women as after sunset
the rose-fingered moon
exceeds all stars; light
reaches equally over the brine sea
and thick flowering fields,
a beautiful dew has poured down,
roses bloom, tender parsley
and blossoming honey clover.
Pacing far away, she remembers
gentle Atthis with desire,
perhaps ... consumes her delicate soul.
Best
Alison
--
"The only real revolt is the revolt against war."
Albert Camus
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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