This small collection served its purpose: introducing me to Sappho.

I read everything out loud twice and fell in love, but these pages only scratched the surface. It was a glimpse of the lake I might someday drown inside.

I will seek poetry from Sappho again (different translators, so I can grasp nuances lost) with more context about her life.

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SYNOPSIS

‘Yes, we did many things, then – all
Beautiful …’

Lyrical, powerful poems about love, sexuality, sun-soaked Greece and the gods.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin’s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Sappho (c.630-570 BCE). Sappho’s Stung with Love is available in Penguin Classics.

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REVIEW

This was a good collection (and I enjoyed every poem), but too short.

It was a good introduction to Sappho’s poetry, but lacked some elements I craved: there was no mention of the original archaic Greek words, no footnotes, no preface, no context… I started wondering how certain phrases were interpreted by the translator and what their choices were.

I will return to Sappho someday, with more scholarly sources. My curiosity has been awakened, not quenched.

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