Sappho: The Poems

Sappho was perhaps the originator of the personal poetry genre. She lived on Lesbos a hundred years before the rise of Athens to pre-eminence. Long after her death, Plato praised her work as that of the Tenth Muse.

Later eras, especially the early Christian church, saw her work as abominable because she dealt openly with sex and with feelings, so that her work was almost totally obliterated. A few new pieces emerged in 1950. Many poets have undertaken to translate her work.

Sasha Newborn's version is personable, not academic. A Teacher's edition, the Supplement Edition of Sappho (www.createspace.com/3683159), contains a wealth of critical comment and background information on Sappho, her poetry, and her times; this was also compiled by Sasha Newborn. Sappho spoke in Aeolian Greek, and developed musical modes as well.

She ran a school for girls that involved performances, presumably of her work as well as others, which would have combined dance, music, and poetry. Unlike the other great Greek poets, she did not write epics, only a few laudatory odes, and no drinking songs. Her delicately nuanced lines convey much more than the words on the page; one might call it an openness to life.

Another book that centers on love, from the male perspective, is Dante and His Circle (www.createspace.com/4024060), poetry by the young Dante and more than a dozen Italian poets reviving and refining the rediscovery of love that the Troubadours had celebrated.