Sapphic stanza
The
Sapphic stanza is a
poeticic form spanning 4 lines. 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. Her countryman
Alcaeus uses the Sapphic stanza; Sappho does not use the Alcaic.
The form is 3 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
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. . .
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