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.