This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy her work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank netgalley and Dover Publications for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I love Sappho's writing .

This is a review for the Dover thrift edition:

I would have liked to see the ancient Greek alongside the translations, but it definitely needed more context to the poems.

I've had a weak spot for Sappho's poetry for some time and this collection easily highlights some of her best poems.

This was my first taste of Sappho’s poetry and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It amazing just how much emotion comes across in these fragments. Of her 9 books, we only have 1 complete poem with the rest surviving a mix of single lines and short stanzas.

Sappho’s style is quite different from the other ancient poets who survived like Homer or Virgil. Sappho’s poems feel more at home with modern poets. The gods do make an appearance in these lines but what is more prominent, isn’t the famous Greek heroes or monsters but is her sense of self and the ‘I’. Her rhythm and melody are direct and highly personal that it’s hard to imagine these lines are thousands of years old. Just goes to confirm that humanity at its core hasn’t changed much over the centuries. Her work is, I find, more relatable and accessible then other ancient literature I’ve read.

I enjoyed John Maxwell Edmonds’ translation I was never drawn out of the reading experience, which I’m thankful for. I will say, in the copy I received, the introduction felt disjointed. I’m not sure if that was a deliberate style choice to reflect the fragmented nature of Sappho’s work or my copy was missing pages.

It is really sad that all that remains of her work are these fragments and 1 whole poem. Also, it’s amazing that we have this much to cherish. I can only imagine the number of poets whose work hasn’t survived in any shape or form. If you haven’t read any of Sappho’s poetry, I highly recommend you do! She is all kinds of wonderful

The book looks generally good. I got access to excerpt of this book. I wished to have access to the full book to provide a more deep review.

I'd read a small selection of Sappho before and i went into knowing a bit about her. I liked the selection included here and went into it expecting to enjoy it. I thought that the analysis and exploration of it was interesting. It definitely inspired me to pick up more Sappho poetry.

Poems of Sappho
by Sappho; John Maxwell Edmonds

Dover Publications

Poetry
Pub Date 15 Feb 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Poems of Sappho through Dover Publications and Netgalley:


Plato called her the tenth muse. and even now twenty five hundred years later Sappho's poetry remains beautiful, direct and honest.

Sappho was a Greek Lyric Poet from the Island of Lesbos. She wrote verses that sings of both sexes of desire, rapture, and sorrow.


Details of Sappho's life aren't really known though she is thought to have lived between 612 and 570 B.C.E and her poetry was read and admired throughout the ancient world.


Her poems survive today in Fragmentary form, and is known of the symbol of female homosexuality.


I give The Poems of Sappho four out of five stars!


Happy Reading

I'm giving this book two stars, not because I think poorly of Sappho's poetry, but rather because I felt like the way the text was presented (often just a bunch of poem fragments and notes, and with an introduction as long as the material being presented) didn't work for me. I felt like I was panning for gold, not enjoying a work of literature.

Not only is Sappho one of the greatest archaic poets, but she also represents an emblematic figure that came to be associated with female homosexuality. Her being the talented, symbolic woman she was makes it difficult to accept how little we know about her life and the reduced amount of her work that was preserved over time. It is estimated that she wrote around 10 000 lines of poetry out of which only about 650 survived.

It is a real pity that we will never be able to take delight in more of her words as it appears they never fail to illustrate the most bittersweet, universal aspects of life in such a simple, yet powerful manner. Especially her poems concering Eros convey emotion in its purest, most timeless form and they still deeply move people after 3000 years since their creation.

This is the first collection of Sappho's poetry that I have indulged myself in and I was pleasantly surprised by the succint, clear information surrounding her. The translation managed to convey the intensity of the feelings potrayed, even though I personally find the versions of her poems without rhyme more impactful. Reading this enhanced my admiration for "The Poetess", "The Muse", the brilliant woman who shall always remain a mystery and an inspiration to all those who have found comfort in her legacy.

3.5 ☆

"I too found fault once on a day
With the Lady of Love - whose grace I pray
These words of mine may not lose for me,
But bring me a maid I’d rather see
Than all her kind apart."

This is the 7th translation of Sappho’s poetry I have read & I actually managed to read one or two fragments translated by Edmonds before. So I both knew exactly what I was getting myself into & had some expectations.

The thing about Sappho’s poetry is that it’s extremely simple yet powerful. It’s rather difficult to translate into English all the layers of meaning she put into just a few choice words & over the years people had such vastly different approaches to this monster of a task. This is actually why I enjoy Edmonds’ translation so much. Because while it might not be the best one and sometimes I’m floored by the fact he really went for rhymes - it somehow portrays the timelessness of Sappho’s verses. It’s a translation from the early XX century and it uses a language that’s already old to us, just like Sappho’s language is. It’s still simple and we can still understand it, though - again, just like Sappho’s! It’s been almost 3000 years but the beauty of love she described? Still the same.

Sappho is perhaps the greatest poet who we know so little about. She was born around 615BC on the island of Lesbos into an aristocratic family. She was married to Cercylas and had a daughter named Cleis. Many know her by the for her sexuality modern words of Lesbian and sapphic are connected to her. This part of her reputation seems to be connected to a play written three hundred years after her death. In that play, she is portrayed as a promiscuous lesbian. In 1073 Pope Gregory had her work destroyed based on the portrayal in the play. Others had a different view. Plato called her the tenth muse and her likeness appeared on coins. He claimed she was beautiful while others called her “very ugly, being short and swarthy.” Regardless, her poetry was very popular in her time.

This collection is a reprint of the 1912 publication translated by John Maxwell Edmonds. In the last one hundred years, we have found more fragments and poems by Sappho but nowhere near the complete nine volumes. Edmonds explains in his introduction that Sappho ran a school for young women teaching singing and the choruses of the maidens used in marriage ceremonies. Book IX, in particular, speaks of the wedding ceremonies. One theory is that Sappho's lesbianism may have just been the male voice in wedding choruses. With so little known about the poet it's really difficult to make a solid claim. Most claims one way or the other were made long after her death.

The fragments and poems in this collection are all the ones that were available in 1912. What was discovered of her work is presented in this edition? Some words are filled in but well noted by Edmonds. The words flow well but being fragments it can be frustrating reading. Complete poems are a joy to read:

The moon is gone
And the Pleiades set
Midnight is nigh;
Time passes on,
and passes, yet
Alone I lie

There can be little doubt of the popularity of her work in ancient times. That popularity continues into modern times. Although new materials have been found, this collection presents the vast majority of the work (and new information for its time) and has been translated by a respected translator of ancient Greek.

I am thrilled that a collection of poems by Sappho is being published and made available for purchase at a great price. What the edition lacks in polish is more than made up for with the extraordinary words of Sappho.

One of my favorite excerpts of her work:
<i>
Aye, seek the false and shun the true,
And bid your friends go hang for you.
And grieve me in your pride, and say
I bring you shame. Go, have your way.
And flout me till you've had your fill;
I have no fears, and never will,
For the anger of a child.
Do as you choose; but have a care;
Old birds know how to shun the snare;
The measure of my foe is ta'en ;
What once he's done he'll do again;
I shall not be beguiled.
Be wise in time then, change your heart;
I know the gods will take my part
Because my spirit's mild.
</i>

Her work is essential reading. Highly Recommended. The only reason I have not rated this 5 stars is because of the font and (what I feel is) a lack of proper organization of the works.