sappho and metre

[catilina]

i’ve been reading “sappho through english poetry”, edited by peter jay and caroline lewis. it’s a bunch of poems that are translations or versions of or inspired by the poetry of sappho, all in chronological order. so you can see Trends! here are some midnight thoughts:

“the last song of sappho” by felicia hemans is a poem i now like A Lot.  “Sound on, thou dark unslumbering sea!” yes! big mood! it also starts with a nice little paratext about how the poem is an ekphrasis of a sketch the poet saw. an extra layer that sappho has travelled through to get to this poem. 

Yet glory’s light hath touch’d my name,
The laurel-wreath is mine—
—With a lone heart, a weary frame—
O restless deep! I come to make them thine!

Give to that crown, that burning crown,
Place in thy darkest hold!
Bury my anguish, my renown,
With hidden wrecks, lost gems, and wasted gold. 

look at the metre too! it’s (iambic) tetrameter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter. the alternation between even and odd numbers of beats per line makes it almost sway like the sea it describes... that’s cool... and the last two lines of that second couplet also just slap like is sappho saying she and her poetry are also “hidden wrecks, lost gems, and wasted gold”? 

but mostly i’ve just been thinking about whether there’s a significant different between metrically asymmetrical lines (iambic pentameter) and symmetrical lines (alexandrines). and if so what. 

Comments

[gaiuscassius]

"hidden wrecks, lost gems, and wasted gold" is so Nice

[catilina]

yes!!! and it’s like the fragment “sweeter-sounding than the lyre, more golden than gold!”