Sappho
Ah, faithless Phaon, thus from me to rove,And bless my rival in a foreign grove!Could Sicily more charming forests showThan those that in thy native Lesbos grow--Did fairer fruits adorn the bending treeThan those that Lesbos did present to thee!Or didst thou find through all the changing fairOne beauty that with Sappho could compare!So soft, so sweet, so charming and so kind,A face so fair, such beauties of the mind--Not Musidora can be rank'd with meWho sings so well thy funeral song for thee!--I'll go!--and from the high Leucadian steepTake my last farewell in the lover's leap,I charge thee, Phaon, by this deed of woeTo meet me in the Elysian shades below,No rival beauty shall pretend a share,Sappho alone shall walk with Phaon there.She spoke, and downward from the mountain's heightPlung'd in the plashy wave to everlasting night.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- sappho n.
- Any one of several species of brilliant South American humming birds of the genus Sappho, having very bright-colored and deeply forked tails; -- called also firetail. [See Sapphic.]
- elysian a.
- Pertaining, or the abode of the blessed after death; hence, yielding the highest pleasures; exceedingly delightful; beatific. [L. Elysius, fr. Elysium.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- plashy a.
- Watery; abounding with puddles; splashy. [From 1st Plash.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sappho is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of the American Revolution. Volume 1 (of 3), Project Gutenberg ebook #38475; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Philip Freneau, Sappho, in Poems (1786–1815), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38475, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/freneau-poems/sappho-2.html, id L12709.
Form and metre
Sappho is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 35% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEECCFFBBDDGG roveA · groveA · showB · growB · treeC · theeC · fairD · compareD · kindE · mindE · meC · theeC · steepF · leapF · woeB · belowB · shareD · thereD · heightG · nightG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ah, faithless Phaon, thus from me to rove, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And bless my rival in a foreign grove! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Could Sicily more charming forests show | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Than those that in thy native Lesbos grow-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Did fairer fruits adorn the bending tree | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Than those that Lesbos did present to thee! | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Or didst thou find through all the changing fair | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| One beauty that with Sappho could compare! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| So soft, so sweet, so charming and so kind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A face so fair, such beauties of the mind-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not Musidora can be rank'd with me | 10 | ·˘˘/˘····· |
| Who sings so well thy funeral song for thee!-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I'll go!--and from the high Leucadian steep | 10 | ·········· |
| Take my last farewell in the lover's leap, | 10 | ····/··/˘· |
| I charge thee, Phaon, by this deed of woe | 9 | ········· |
| To meet me in the Elysian shades below, | 11 | ·····˘/˘··· |
| No rival beauty shall pretend a share, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Sappho alone shall walk with Phaon there. | 9 | /˘˘/····· |
| She spoke, and downward from the mountain's height | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Plung'd in the plashy wave to everlasting night. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Fred Lewis Pattee's notes to the Poems of Philip Freneau (Project Gutenberg #38475).
- Line 12 This and the preceding line omitted from the later versions.
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