fragments of sappho's poems

Most of Sappho's poetry is either lost or fragmented. She was deemed the tenth Muse by Plato nearly 2 decades after her death. She was from the Greek Isle of Lesbos.


I have no complaint
Prosperity that
The golden muses
Gave me was no
Delusion: dead, I
Won't be forgotten


*****


Believe me, in the future someone
Will remember us .....

Because you love me
Stand with me face to face
And unveil the softness in your eyes .....

*****

Come to me now again, release me from
this pain, everything my spirit longs
to have fulfilled, fulfill, and you
be my ally

*****

And their feet move
rhythmically, as tender
feet of Cretan girls
danced once around an

altar of love, crushing
a circle in the soft
smooth flowering grass

*****

With his venom
irresistible
and bittersweet

that loosener
of limbs, Love

reptile-like
strikes me down

*****