Sappho

Even though Sappho’s poem, “To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess,” depicts the beauty of love, it also conveys the idea that love can be painful. However, Sappho concludes her poem by suggesting that even he pain left behind by an unsuccessful relationship can be accepted and overcome.

For instance, the poem opens with Sappho referring to a woman as a “goddess,” thus, suggesting that this woman is truly beautiful. To explicate, Sappho places Atthis on a pedestal along with the divinities, hence, placing her side-by-side to the most beautiful beings in the universe—the gods. Furthermore, in order to further depict Atthis’ beauty, Sappho employs a simile. Sappho proclaims, “she is-as conspicuous…as the rose-tipped moon surpasses all the stars after the sun has set.” Once again, Sappho highlights her love’s beauty, for she compares Atthis to the moon. Nonetheless, she also suggests that her loved one surpasses all other woman in beauty. It is interesting to note that Sappho utilizes the moon in her simile, in order to convey the idea that her lover brings light to the night. In other words, without Atthis’ love, Sappho is lost in the darkness.

In a similar vein, Sappho proceeds to highlight the beauty of nature: “roses bloom, and tender parsley and honey-flowered clover.” This use of imagery by Sappho has dual effect. First, it suggests that Atthis brings beauty to her life, for she is the moon that brings about joy into her life. To explain, for Sappho Atthis represents everything beautiful there is, and she places Atthis above everything else in this world. Next, maintaining the motif of nature in mind, it is appropriate to state that nature has various cycles. For instance, as the day ends, the sun sets and the moon rises to illuminate the darkness. Just as the sun has set Sappho’s and Atthis’ relationship is over, yet with the rise of the moon, a new day awaits. Sappho hints that a new day with countless opportunities to find a new love awaits her.

Nevertheless, the last stanza reveals her true state of emotion—she is heartbroken. Sappho solemnly says, “her spirit wasted with yearning, heart consumed with pain.” Sappho refers to herself as being consumed with pain, for she yearns for Atthis. Lastly, Sappho perhaps utilized the third person, in order to distance herself just like she was attempting to distance herself from Atthis’ memory. In all, it is axiomatic that Sappho wanted to illustrate the joy and beauty love brought to her life. Nonetheless, she also highlights the pain left behind by an unsuccessful love and how she must proceed with her life.

Anna's Close Reading

Sappho's poem "To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess" depicts the heartbroken tale of a lost female lover through the use of metaphors, descriptive language, and allusions. In this poem, Sappho talks, possibly about herself, in third person. She uses the pronoun "you" to talk directly to the female ("goddess") who left her heartbroken to make it seem as if the poem was written specifically for this woman.

In the first stanza, we see that this female was the object of her affection, who caused Sappho to sing "her greatest delight." We can infer that this female isn't actually a goddess because of the use of the word "like," indicating that Sappho viewed this woman as divine and placed her on a pedestal. By saying this, Sappho conveys how much this woman means to her. Sappho goes on to talk about how her heartbreak has made this woman stand out to her among all the Lydian woman. Sappho mentions that as the sun sets, the moon rises, and "its light spreads equally over salt sea and flowering fields." In this phrase, Sappho is basically saying that although this relationship is ending, she will move on and spread her love to others.

Conveying her acceptance of moving on, Sappho uses descriptive words, like "bountiful dew pours down," "roses bloom," and "tender parsley and honey-flowered clover" to describe the vast opportunities and beauty of new beginnings. Although Sappho will move on from her heartbreak, she suggests in the last stanza that she won't forget her former lover.

Close Reading: To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess

Sappho’s poem To Her You Were like a Visible Goddess is a poem about the beauty of love and the ironic beauty of pain. While the first four lines establish the relationship as a female-female relationship, the speaker is actually a third person who has been observing the relationship. The speaker is speaking to the audience, which is Atthis, the lover who was “like a visible goddess.” The imagery in the first stanza establishes the beauty of Atthis when the speaker equates her beauty to that of a “visible goddess” or the beauty of a goddess visible in a human being. However, the use of past tense makes it clear that the relationship between the two female lovers is over. Now, the former lover is described by the speaker as “conspicuous among Lydian women… after the sun has set…” It’s interesting to note the speaker’s use of simile. The image the speaker conjures for the reader is a very beautiful image, which serves to show the audience that the former lover’s beauty has transcended the normal standards of beauty. This transcendence, however, is ironic as it comes after she has lost the love of her lover (the audience member). The poem continues to use the image of the “rose-tipped moon” to illuminate the “salt sea” and the “flowering fields.” But the light of the moon is so bright that that it also highlights the details of the field: “bountiful dew pours down roses bloom…” Since the rose-tipped moon’s light is a simile for the beauty of the former lover, stanzas two and three essentially state that the beauty of the former lover is so radiant that she enhances the beauty of people around her. Yet, the irony of the poem becomes apparent in the final stanza. Despite the fact that her beauty and her conspicuousness among Lydian women show that she is physically better than ever before, the former lover still feels pain over her lost love with Atthis.

Todd's close reading

“To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess”

The poem begins by seemingly speaking to the reader. It starts off by telling the reader that, in the eyes of an unnamed woman, they were like a goddess. Sappho goes on to write that the reader’s singing was this person’s greatest delight. This can be interpreted as saying that everything that the intended reader of this poem does makes the woman happy. It can be assumed that this woman was in love with this goddess figure. I find it interesting that Sappho writes the poem from a third person perspective while also including the reader. I believe that there was an intended subject for this poem, and yet through saying “you were like a goddess” Sappho immediately is engaging all readers. In this way, everyone can feel like they are connected to this poem. After the first three lines, the poem shifts from past to present tense. Sappho uses the metaphor of the night to describe the woman in the poem. Sappho compares the woman to moonbeams illuminating dewy field, which bloom with roses. The scene that is created shows the reader that the woman stands out from others because of her beauty. However, this woman also stands out from the other women for a darker reason. It seems as if she is fated to be trapped in the night. She is a beautiful person who seemingly cannot experience the light of day. This can be seen through the phrase “but she walks there…her spirit wasted with yearning, heart consumed with pain”. This pain and imprisonment in the darkness is supposedly caused by the actions of the intended reader. This woman loved her and is trapped by the idea that that love is not returned to her. This could possibly be because the intended reader simply does not love the woman back or because the intended reader is dead. In either case, the woman is distraught and left to waste her beauty in the darkness.

Close Reading #3

In the poem “To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess”, Sappho shows the beauty and dangers of love. Sappho describes the beauty of her lover as comparable to that of the gods. Beauty, however, is not the only quality of Atthis that Sappho admires; she is also attracted to the talents of Atthis, “your singing her greatest delight.” The praise of both physical beauty and natural talent lets the reader know that Sappho truly loved Atthis. It marks the distinction between lust and love. Sappho then talks about her present life. She has become more confident and it radiates through her appearance. She emphasizes her conspicuousness among Lydian women to show how her broken heart has led her to become more appealing, perhaps to find a new partner. I thought this was a contrast between the deep relationship she had with Atthis and lust.

Sappho compares her beauty to that of “the rose-tipped moon” whose beauty becomes prominent “after the sun has set.” This comparison expands on the idea that she has become more concerned with her appearance after the loss of her lover. The sun setting represents the end of a relationship. Later, Sappho describes the aesthetics of nature and compares it to feminine beauty. Sappho mentions the flowering fields, roses blooming, tender parsley and honey- flowered clover to illustrate the likeness in aesthetics among beauty and nature. Regardless of its appeal, nature is impermanent, just as beauty is.

In the last stanza, Sappho does not seem to be contented with the attention she receives from her physical attractiveness. She remains melancholic over the loss of Atthis. This highlights the superficiality of beauty and how lust does not compare to the warmth of love.

To Her You Were Like a Visible Close Reading

The poem begins in the past tense with “to here you were a visible goddess”. The reader assumes that there has been a shift of circumstances when on the next stanza it begins with “now she is”. The middle stanzas describe a beautiful environment and are rich with visual imagery of flowers and twilight. Overall, this poem has a melancholy feel. Halfway through the poem, the sun has set, which might represent the goddess that was once visible, but now sinks behind sea. There is a visual theme of night. The subject stands out like the “rose-tipped moon”. Maybe she is blushing, because that’s always embarrassing. The last stanza finally makes it clear to the reader what has happened. This subject of the poem is heartbroken. Her spirit is “wasted with yearning” and her “heart consumed with pain". She mentions Atthis, who is the source of this pain.

This poem’s structure was interesting because it only made sense to me after the last stanza. I then had to work backwards back through the poem to fully understand the metaphors in the middle stanzas. The beginning stanza mentions, “your singing her greatest delight”. I think the “your” refers to Atthis. I get the sense that the beautiful “flowering fields” represent a real location, that the subject of the poem is listening to Atthis sing. I imagine that the “light that spreads equally” and the “bountiful dew” that “pours down” is Atthis singing to an audience of Lydian women who “bloom” at the beautiful singing, but “she” cannot enjoy this landscape any longer. What once was her greatest delight is now a painful experience.

Contrast of Imagery

In ‘To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess’ is about love, either lost or unrequited as all the reader knows is that the female character is in extreme grief over this lost lover. The does not describe her facial expressions or actions, but by presents a series of images that promise happiness and then contrasting it with the woman’s emotional state to demonstrate the turbulent depths of her emotions. The woman is “as conspicuous among Lydian women as the rose-tipped moon/ surpasses all the stars” emphasizes her grief. The moon is an appropriate metaphor to symbolize her despair as compared to the other Lydian women, who the reader can assume are at bliss and in love with no unfortunate mishaps yet to occur in their romantic lives. The moon can be considered the shadow of the sun’s light (sometime form eclipses), blocking natural rays of sunshine and causing shadows and nighttime to fall. Such reference can therefore represent the woman’s fear and darkness in her heart after losing her love. The ‘stars’ on the other hand, are in multitude and stars are often used as a backdrop in many romantic settings. The moon and stars metaphors used to illustrate the stark difference in the emotion and situation of the woman’s love.

Then Sappho shifts onto describing images that hold a promise of beauty and life, with imagery such as “roses bloom, and tender parsley and honey-flowered clover”. Then Sappho again changes the focus of the scenes onto how the woman’s mourning has caused her “spirit wasted with yearning, heart consumed with pain”. Those two images are again used like the stars and moon reference as a way to highlight her depression. This shows how the woman no longer considers herself as a functioning unit of the world, as with the lines presented one scene is depicting external beauty and the next one showing the woman’s internal anguish. The roses, parsley and clover are an art of the natural world, where life moves in a direction of growth, death, and rebirth, as it is the cycle of how life is maintained. The women, however, is stuck in this debilitated stage where she can no longer move forward, she is immobile and by refusing to recover from her emotional trauma, causing her life force to decay from her pain and misery.

love and desire

In "To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess," Sappho describes a woman in love yearning for her the object of her affection. The title and the first two lines reveal a female-female relationship. The identity of the second female is unknown; however, taken in the context of the times, the mentioned "goddess" could be literally be the goddess Aphrodite, with emphasis put on "visible," implying that woman can almost see her, and fell in love with her sensuality. In a more probable interpretation, "goddess" could refer to simply to another human woman who is elevated to that status in her eyes by her feelings.

The second stanza romanticizes the vision of the yearning woman. It compares her to a "rose-tipped moon." Rose-tipped is not the first word I would think of to describe the moon, but it is the symbol of love. The moon comes out at night, a time of solitude and quiet contemplation. Together, the words cast a more romantic light on the woman's thoughts. The idea of the stanza as a whole speaks of how love sets her apart and heartbreak isolates her ("conspicuous among Lydian women...surpasses all the stars").

The poem then goes on to contrast the moon imagery with one of the setting sun. Here, Sappho uses gentle and yet wholesome adjectives such as"bountiful dew," "tender parsley," and "honey-colored" flowers, again romanticizing the vision of the main character. Despite the beautiful imagery, the woman is described to still be in a state of sadness and intense yearning. Atthis, a lady from a Greek myth sometimes known to have died a young, unmarried virgin, is brought up. The main character sees Atthis as a reflection of herself without the lover she desires. Her heart is "consumed with pain." Not only does she feel pain, she is consumed by it. Her yearning overtakes her whole being. In general, the poem speaks about how all-encompassing the woman's desire is, filling up her whole consciousness and isolating her from others.

Flowering Fields and Blooming Roses

In this love poem by Sappho, we get a scene of a woman reminiscing about a past lover. Typical of most of her poems, Sappho uses detailed imagery that works well to set the mood of the entire poem. By describing nature with words like the “flowering fields” and “roses bloom[ing],” we get a sense of calm enjoyment. By setting this flowery mood, we know that whomever the speaker is talking about, she is someone who brings back good, warm memories. Because of this diction, it makes me want to read this poem slowly and thoughtfully, which I believe was the intended way for the poem to be read.

We receive more imagery of how important this person is in the beginning of this fragmented poem. By saying that this person was like a “visible goddess,” we see that this person has the likeness of a Greek goddess. Perhaps it is the beauty, or the simply the splendor of a god. To be compared to a god is one of the greatest compliments to give somebody, especially during a time when they were worshipped by a vast majority.

With this remembrance comes the pain of not having the person there with your anymore. In the last part of this translation, we see a person who is yearning with a “heart consumed with pain.” Though there is this heartbreak in the end, there is a gentleness about it since the imagery in the stanzas before the last on successfully sets up the tone of the entire poem.

Sappho Poem Close Reading

Sappho Poem Close Reading

The poem, “To Her You Were like a Visible Goddess” describes a very personal experience in the life of the Roman Sappho. She recounts the loss of a relationship with her lover Atthis. In the very beginning of the poem Sappho elevates Atthis to a plane above humans; she calls he a “visibile goddess” whose singer was “her greatest delight.” This elevation and glorification of Atthis serves to show the intense love and emotion that Sappho held for her. Surprisingly though, the misery that Sappho experiences as a result of the loss of her relationship with Atthis seems to accentuate her own beauty. Sappho’s anguish causes her to stand out from Lydian women and almost glow and “surpass all the stars.” This matches Sappho’s belief that the most beautiful thing in the world is a person’s desire. So this intense pain and anguish she is suffering is in fact very beautiful. The loss of relationship causes Sappho’s desire to grow and accentuate her beauty. Sappho’s “heart consumed with pain” and her “spirit wasted with yearning” represent the most beautiful thing on earth: desirer.

Hamzah

Forms of Beauty

In the poem, “To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess”, Sappho stresses the beauty
of love, in its ability to inspire the extremes of human emotion. The poem reflects
on the relationship of two female lovers, and the immense high and low points
of their relationship. The poem begins with a nostalgic tone, emphasizing the
happiness and beauty in the relationship. The narrator testifies to the
boundless appreciation of the listener expressed by her lover: “To her, you
were like a visible goddess.” The emphasis of the first stanza is on the
reciprocation of love and joy between the two lovers that Sappho describes. In
the next three stanzas, Sappho shifts to describe a much subtler type of beauty
found amidst darkness. The comparison of the listener’s lover to the “rose-tipped
moon/surpass[ing] all the stars after/the sun has set”, helps show the
juxtaposing forms of beauty that exist in the day and night. The description of
the lovers’ former relationship in the first stanza calls to mind joyfulness
and brightness, while the next three stanzas describe a light which shines
amidst darkness. Just as the “singing” of the first stanza suggests the
vivacity and excitement found in their relationship, the metaphor of the moon
helps capture the much quieter, subtler beauty of her sadness. Sappho calls
upon various natural phenomena in order to illustrate the beauty found in
cycles, of generation and regeneration. The sun sets, but the moon rises and
offers a different, but still beautiful light. A “bountiful dew pours down,”
but “roses/ bloom, and tender parsley and/ honey-flowered cover.” The images
presented by the speaker, “light spreads equally over salt sea and flowering
fields, bountiful dew pours down; roses bloom and tender parsley and
honey-clover”. These stanzas indicate the end of the lovers’ relationship that
appeared so strong and joyful in the first stanza, but also identify the beauty
that shines amidst seemingly all-encompassing darkness. In a sense, the
relationship allows each partner to experience the beauty of both immense joy
and sadness. At the end of the poem, Sappho returns to the reality of the poem’s
despairing lover, who longs for the time when her relationship was thriving, as
“her spirit waste[s] with yearning, heart consumed with pain”. Although the
listener’s lover experiences a great sadness and desire to escape the pains of
her broken relationship, her ability to experience the spectrum of human emotion,
seeing and felt boundless joy and sadness exemplifies a form of beauty in
itself.

Niall's Reading- Visibility of an Image

           In Sappho’s To Her You Were Like a Visible Goddess, she is describing her feelings for her love, Atthis.  This idea of Atthis’ visibility is significant in how central she is to Sappho.  Her visibility carries some irony though since Sappho can no longer see Atthis and she is merely a memory.  Sappho’s poem is a pining for her former lover that displays how dominant she is but ends with the realization that she is not visible at all but ironically only a memory.

Although Atthis may only be a memory, she is very visible to Sappho.  This idea is most noticeable how she claims that Atthis is “as conspicuous among Lydian/ women as the rose-tipped moon/ surpasses all stars after/ the sun has set” (Sappho 159).  There are two main ideas to discern from this passage:  conspicuous which means observable, and “surpasses all stars after the sun has set” (159) which demonstrates that Atthis is noticeable as well as prevalent to every star in the sky.  This passage depicts Atthis’ importance to Sappho as she also compares her to a “visible goddess” (159).  It would be easier to compare her to a goddess but instead Sappho mentions that she is visible.  Her being a visible goddess is not only important in how real she is to Sappho but also how unattainable she is

            Sappho clarifies that she cannot be with Atthis anymore because at the end of the poem Sappho describes that she is gone and that she yearns for her.  Sappho makes this quite clear in the final stanza:  “But she walks there remembering/ gentle Atthis, her spirit wasted/ with yearning, heart consumed with pain” (161).  Sappho is remembering Atthis and yearning for her as she feels the pangs of lost love.  Throughout the poem Sappho describes her love’s visibility and prominence vividly only to finally reveal that she cannot be with her.  As visible as Atthis may be and all that she supersedes, she paradoxically is not there to be seen at all.  This juxtaposition shows that even though Sappho cannot be with Atthis, she is dominant and visible in her mind.

            Sappho’s poem is filled with imagery that not only displays Atthis’ magnificence but also how observable she is.  She ends with the idea that Atthis is not even attainable but still etched in her thoughts.  The contrast becomes more ironic as Sappho describes more of Atthis’ beauty and charm only to reveal in the end that she cannot obtain it.       

Grief and Beauty

In Sappho’s poem “To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess,” the subject is a heartbroken woman who was as devoted to her lover as one would be to a goddess. The lost lover is the source of the woman’s happiness with her singing in the past. Sappho’s comparison of the mourning lover to the “rose-tipped moon [surpassing] all the stars after the sun has set” extends to the people around her. The lost love may be compared to the sun and the Lydian women to the stars; after the lover disappears, the beauty of the mourning lover becomes more apparent among the Lydian women, just as the moon becomes brighter than the surrounding stars in the absence of the sun’s light. This metaphor suggests that Sappho sees great beauty in grief for a loved one, as it is a kind of love in itself. Such beauty is reflected in that of the lover herself and in nature. Sappho presents an almost unnatural abundance of nature, with the description of how “bountiful dew pours down,” suggesting that the lover’s beauty is more godlike than human. The description of the lover as the “rose-tipped moon” lifts her to a divine level on par with the lost love that she so adores. The rose color represents the characteristic of passion in the lover, a quality that is also suggested by the use of alliteration with the “s” in the second and third stanzas, creating a soft, sensual sound. However, this passion makes the lover’s condition all the worse, with “her spirit wasted with yearning, heart consumed with pain.” For all her divine beauty, the lover suffers as any human would. Sappho shows that even such a goddess-like woman can be subject to pain and heartbreak, but grief can be beautiful.

The Significance of Loss

Sappho of Lesbos is known for infusing her poetry with themes of love, beauty, and female eroticism. In acquiescence with this general characterization, To Her You Were Like A Visible Goddess focuses on the subject of lost lesbian love. The use of the past tense in the first stanza and the yearning sorrow highlighted in the last stanza reveal the idea that the poem is founded upon bereavement. Thus the style and loaded language of the poem reveal the poem’s subject matter without the use of any explicit statements. Expressing the poem in her own voice, Sappho introduces two characters: the lost, perhaps deceased, lover and the mourning lover.

The poem fragment begins with a description of the mourning lover’s conception of her lost companion. The lost lover is held in the highest regard for the poet’s time period; she is equated to a goddess and thus associated with the qualities of divine intelligence and appeal. However, not only is the lost lover’s god-like magnificence revealed, but there is also mention of the mourning lover’s beauty. Sappho compares her to all other Lydian women and states that the mourning lover’s attractiveness sets her apart. Sappho further uses a simile to equate her to a “rose-tipped moon.” Hence the mourning lover is as unique as the occurrence of the moon when it is infused with the crimson color of love and passion.

Thereby setting the mood with details of and similes for incomparable beauty, Sappho suddenly reflects on the desperate emotions of pain and yearning. Consequently, the two ideas are juxtaposed, giving the mourning lover’s consuming sorrow even more weight. The poem’s organization instills the loss with more significance, as it did not occur between two ordinary individuals but rather between two extraordinary, almost demi-goddess females.

A Visible Goddess, Yes, But Still Human (Close Reading #3)

This piece is another example of Sappho’s classical love poetry. She focuses on beautiful imagery and soft tones to support love, life, and youthful spirit. Although the first stanza and several from the end are not available, the remainder of the poem still reveals the kind of themes that Sappho is recognized for: a sort of majestic beauty in nature, divinity, and feminine figures. For example, Sappho describes the subject of interest (“you” in the title) as a “visible goddess”. This is possibly the greatest compliment that can be given in ancient Greece because of the Greeks’ infatuation with divine heroes and their obsession for things unattainable, such as immortality and supernatural powers. Since this female character is “conspicuous among Lydian women,” she surely stands apart from her peers because Lydia was a foreign land, especially to Lesbos (Sappho’s native region). Furthermore, Sappho elevates this demi-goddess’ status to even greater proportions when she compares her to a bright and colorful “rose-tipped moon” that “surpasses all the stars” in the night sky. Mentioning the cosmos adds to the celestial character of Sappho’s subject, lifting her to a realm out of this world, or rather, beyond human capacity. To build upon this character’s majestic beauty, Sappho includes everyday images of nature like “roses bloom” and “honey-flowered clover.” She uses alliterations such as “flowering fields” and “salt sea” to make the sounds smoother and warmer. But there is an interesting change in pace and mood in the last available stanza. Sappho mentions another woman, Atthis, who presumably died early (“her spirit wasted with yearning”) and due to love. Perhaps Sappho cautions her audience about the unforeseen dangers of love. In structuring her poem this way, she suggests that heart-gripping pain may follow apparently perfect experiences early in a relationship. So in this regard, a goddess that is visible to Sappho is also vulnerable to human emotion and limitation—a reoccurring theme among ancient works reviewed in this class.