Sapphic stanza  

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The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is a poetic form spanning four lines.

The form is three hendecasyllabic lines of trochee, trochee, dactyl, trochee, trochee and a concluding line of dactyl, trochee, known as the Adonic or adonean line.

Using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps" (or free syllable):

- u -  x  - u u -   u - x
- u -  x  - u u -   u - x
- u -  x  - u u -   u - x
       - u u - x

While Sappho used several metrical forms for her poetry, she is most famous for the Sapphic stanza. It is not clear if she created it or if it was already part of the Aeolic tradition.

Use by other poets

Sappho's contemporary and countryman, Alcaeus of Mytilene, also used the Sapphic stanza.

A few centuries later, the Roman poet Catullus admired Sappho's work and used the Sapphic meter in two poems, Catullus 11 and Catullus 51. The latter is a rough translation of Sappho's poem 31. Sapphics were also used by Horace in several of his Odes.

The Sapphic stanza was imitated in English by Algernon Charles Swinburne in a poem he simply called Sapphics:

Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,
Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled
Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;
Saw the reluctant. . .

Allen Ginsberg also experimented with the form:

Red cheeked boyfriends tenderly kiss me sweet mouthed
under Boulder coverlets winter springtime
hug me naked laughing & telling girl friends
gossip til autumn




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Sapphic stanza" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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