Charlie Todd

3-16-14
2B

Sappho: Meaning in Poetry and its Origins

Throughout the years, the most revered and talented poets and their works have employed
varieties of fancy devices and techniques. But how have they been able to exploit these devices
to produce meaning? What drove them to incorporate these devices and their respective hidden
meanings in their poetry? Through the close examination of the poetry and milieu of one of the
first great artisans of poetry, Sappho of Lesbos, one can unveil connections between poetic
techniques and devices and meaning. Sappho has provided an exceptional viewpoint from which
to observe these connections because of her ancient and unique milieu, yet nonetheless
remarkable talent in the field of lyric poetry. The devices and techniques of Sappho's poetry are
closely connected with meaning and milieu because they are in a constant cycle; milieu affects
the choice of techniques and these in turn produce meaning.
Sapphos milieu was quite the interesting subject. She was born on the Greek island of
Lesbos, sometime around 615 B.C. Seeing as the poet lived over two and a half millennia ago,
critic Curt Guyette accurately remarks, "She inhabited a world without mass communication; the
written word was only in its earliest stages when her poems were created." As a result of this
primitive communicational environment, the Greeks praised and celebrated her above-average
poetic and linguistic skills. In his criticism, Guyette includes words from Erica Jong who went
so far as to compare Sappho to a blend of Madonna and Sylvia Plath; she shares Madonnas
fame and Plaths ferocious truthfulness.
The unique part about Sappho and her milieu, though, was her romantic interest. She was
lesbian, and she was reported to have participated in a little circle of friends and students,
whether for romantic or scholarly purposes. Her sexuality was not socially accepted at the time
Charlie Todd
3-16-14
2B

and eventually caused her own exile to Sicily, but nevertheless it continued to appear in her
poetry. This emotional aspect combined with the religious aspect of Sapphos milieu induced a
heavy focus on the Greek goddess and love and beauty, Aphrodite, as she frequently addressed
her poems to the goddess in a manner that suggested romance together. Critic Adrian Blevins
describes her poem Hymn to Aphrodite as the ultimate lyric plea, addressing Aphrodite, the
Greek Goddess of Love, in a heightened, or highly musical, address or request. Sapphos
utilization of apostrophe, or the address of someone not present, creates meaning by magnifying
the ubiquitous feeling of unrequited love in not only Greek but most all cultures. More
specifically, her hyperbolic address of an actual goddess suggests that a lasting relationship
between the two women is impossible, and she is thus able to establish a meaningful connection
with readers sharing her pain. In another surviving piece of her work, Fragment 2, as it has
been tagged by historians, she addresses Aphrodite yet again, only in a more subtle manner. The
first two stanzas consist of an elaborate, sensuous description of an empty, covert grove where
Sappho currently waits. Throughout this description, she appears to address an anonymous
entity, but it is in the last stanza when Sappho finally reveals who she is talking to. One can
assume that this person is Aphrodite, but the delayed mentioning of the name yields a sort of
suspense and adds to the emptiness of the grove, only to be symbolically filled once Aphrodite
is actually mentioned (McEvilley).
Sappho also wrote much on the symbolic level in her poetry. To refer back to Fragment
2, the grove which she visualizes must represent something else. Thomas McEvilley has
written some interpretations as to what the grove symbolizes as well: "But the emptiness of
Sappho's grove is immensely deeper; it has a sense of unchanging trance-like stasis. The stillness
here is neither the stillness of night nor of day but of timelessnessof the sacred . . . It is a
Charlie Todd
3-16-14
2B

magical scene . . . It is surely as much (probably more) a description of an inner condition, a
readiness in the heart, than of an outer scene." Essentially, not only can the reader perceive this
piece as a description of a tangible and peaceful hideaway, but also as a symbol of Sapphos own
internal pleasure and peace. Sappho writes an abundance of personification in this passage as
well, with phrases such as cold streams murmur and you are seized by a strange drowsiness,
again, to add to the visual effect and meaning of the poem. She continues to infuse elements of
Greek religion into this poem by writing a temple into the imaginary grove, where she and
Aphrodite will drink nectar and partake in other festivities.
True emotions and meaning cannot be truly and fully expressed through language, but
Sappho and her poetry approach that limit. Said wonderfully by the critic Frederic Will, The
rules of language, including not only the laws of grammar, but that body of tropes and verbal
habits which constitute literary tradition, are deeply involved with the laws or limitations of the
inner life: the inner life itself developing and ripening only in terms of language." Sapphos
milieu allowed her to reference Aphrodite in a superb display of the meaningful and sorrowful
sensation of unreciprocated love, along with a more intricate, visually appealing description of a
symbolic hideaway. The techniques she utilized in the process (apostrophe, personification,
imagery, etc.) have as a result brought out the meaning in what she was attempting to portray and
let loose to the reader. Sappho was an excellent poet, and her skills with the pen, reinforced by
her milieu, led straight to meaning in the mind of the reader.






Charlie Todd
3-16-14
2B

Works Cited

"Fragment 2." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 61-83.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

"Hymn to Aphrodite." Poetry for Students. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
102-123. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. "Sappho." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.