When We with Sappho (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Kenneth Rexroth
- First Published: 1944
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Poetry or poets, New England, Death or dying, Greece or Greek people, Wind, Orchards, Sleep, Summer, Thunderstorms
The Poem
“When We with Sappho” is a poem of 126 lines, divided into a four-line epigraph and six stanzas of varying length. The poem is unrhymed and written in a loosely syllabic form. Most lines have seven to nine syllables, but the number varies from two to fifteen. The title refers to the Greek lyric poet who lived in the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. Lines of Sappho’s poetry are quoted in the epigraph and read by the lovers in the poem. In the epigraph, the description of wind blowing through an apple orchard inducing sleep links her poetry to what occurs in the...
[The entire page is 1328 words long]
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