Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31 Essay

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Sappho of the island Lesbos’ creative heritage remains a classic example of lyric poetry. She is part of nine canonical lyrics of Ancient Greece, alongside Ibycus, Alcman, Stesichorus, Pindar, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, and Alcaeus. Her poems’ topics were mostly colorful and variegated and had deep descriptions of her feelings. Its main advantage is intense passion, expressed with extreme simplicity and brightness. She uses comparisons to express her personal feelings about beauty, love, passion, and the aesthetics of the human body, regardless of gender.

My favorite poem from Sappho is Fragment 31 because of the celebration of love as a feeling it demonstrates. I like that she is sensual and delicate in her strong feelings. In the middle of the poem, Sappho focuses on her love experience. This piece of art starts from the man’s equation with gods, but the main character is the woman sitting opposite him. She compares looking at this woman as if her “tongue breaks and thin / fire is racing under the skin” (Sappho, lines 9-10). The narrator is so overwhelmed by the feeling of attraction that she slowly loses her senses. I appreciate the elegant way she describes it because that is how everyone feels when truly falling in love.

Metaphors and similes, with the addition of hyperbole, are the literary elements Sappho uses almost in every line of the poem to express complicated feelings inside of her. It is written in Sapphic stanzas named after her, consisting of two hendecasyllabic lines and another line with five extra syllables. The author applies a melodramatic tone to show her position. Assonance and alliteration are also used in words like “lovely laughing”, “sweet speaking”, and “a person of poverty” (Sappho, 4-5, 17 lines). The Fragment 31 by Sappho is a masterpiece that celebrates being in love and demonstrates the pain of inner feelings because of unrequited love.

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Sappho. Poem Today. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, June 30). Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sappho-of-creative-heritage-fragment-31/

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"Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31." IvyPanda, 30 June 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/sappho-of-creative-heritage-fragment-31/.

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IvyPanda. (2023) 'Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31'. 30 June.

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IvyPanda. 2023. "Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31." June 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sappho-of-creative-heritage-fragment-31/.

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IvyPanda. "Sappho of Creative Heritage: Fragment 31." June 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sappho-of-creative-heritage-fragment-31/.

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