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.