lyricpoetryUtahStateUniversity

1、the lyric age after homers day, the greek world started to change dramatically with the fall of the phoenicians to the assyrian onslaught in the eighth century bce, sea routes were opened all around the eastern mediterranean basin greeks became traders and money began pouring into greecethe lyric ag

2、e but keeping track of ones wealth requires some knowledge of accounting and accounting requires writing! so this new class of wealthy pre-classical greeks had to learn how to write starting around 700 bce, literacy in greece began to climbthe lyric age these noveaux riches (“the newly wealthy”) wer

3、e not always members of the established, traditional aristocracy many were bright young men who came from humble origins these merchants did not necessarily have a deep investment in the “heroic past”the lyric age in fact, most of them would just as soon not have talked about their ancestors most of

4、 these people lived for now, not in some mythological past as a result, these adventurous entrepeneurs wanted a type of poetry closer to their own experiences in lifethe lyric age that meant verses which were fast and intense, and immediately rewarding thus, during the lyric age an evenings entertai

5、nment turned from the recitation of one long, stately poem by an oral bard like homer to the performance of many short, emotional poems by a lyric poetthe lyric age and the topic of this lyric poetry was almost invariably love or if not love, the need for immediate political change cf. the evolution

6、 in music of the modern age from operas (a century or more ago) to rock music todaythe nature of lyric poetry lyric poetry is very different from homeric epic, even just on the surface lyric poems were composed in many different poetic meters (rhythms) homer used only one type of verse ever after al

7、l, how many different verse forms can an oral poet (who works in oral formulas) be expected to master?the nature of lyric poetry literacy was an important element in this equation writing allowed for greater poetic flexibility if nothing else, poets could now erase and re-compose a line erasing a wo

8、rd or correcting a line was something an oral poet like homer could never have donethe nature of lyric poetry moreover, a lyric poet could send a poem off in written form to be read by someone else in performance homer could not ever have done that either thus, lyric poetry could spread wherever the

9、re was a literate performer available lyric poetry reached a much wider audience than oral poetry like homersthe nature of lyric poetry still, lyric poetry was designed to be sung and heard in public, not read in private most lyric poems were designed to be read aloud at parties (or political rallie

10、s) to the accompaniment of the lyre (a stringed musical instrument) hence, the name “lyric”statuette of a poet playing the lyrethe nature of lyric poetry the lyre is the ancient equivalent of the guitar today it was associated with intense emotion, and often extreme behavior several stories survive

11、from antiquity of lyric poets who performed drunk and lived in non-traditional lifestylesa greek vase depicting a lyric poet in the rapture of performance the nature of lyric poetry greek lyric poetry was much centered on the music behind the verse too bad, then, that all the music of lyric poetry h

12、as been lost nevertheless, the verse is gloriously beautiful all on its own but it only hints at the true power of this genre in its daysappho the best exponent of lyric poetry was a woman named sappho her poetry represents one of the very few womans voices to emerge from all of greek and roman anti

13、quity the power and beauty of her poetic voice was great enough to overcome the ancient worlds deep-seated misogynya greek vase depicting the lyric poets sappho and alcaeussappho she lived on the greek island of lesbos, ca. 600 bce little is known about her, except that she ran a sort of finishing s

14、chools for girls she wrote love poems to the girls there hence, our word “lesbian”sappho in large part because of her sexuality, later ages denounced her poetry as “immoral” even though her surviving poems never include sexually graphic or lurid passages unlike many other ancient authors who include

15、 explicit passages but whose work has survivedsappho nevertheless, her work was censured and not copied or preserved the way other authors works were the result was that most of her work was lost what little we have today comes for the most part from quotes of her poetry found in the work of other a

16、uthors sappho some poems, however, have been preserved on ancient papyri these are often only fragments it is possible that today we do not have even one complete poem by sappho! all in all, the loss of sapphos poetry is one of the greatest literary catastrophes of all timesappho moreover, to focus

17、on sapphos sexual orientation is to miss the point of her poetry her songs almost invariably center around the intensity of feeling inspired by the objects of sapphos affection that is, sappho writes honestly and elegantly about herself, e.g. what loves does to hersapphopoem 31he seems to me, that m

18、an, almost a godthe man, who is face to face with you,sitting close enough to you to hearyour sweet whisperingand your laughter, glistening, whichthe heart in my breast beats for.for when on you i glance, i do not,not one sound, emit. sapphopoem 31but my tongue snaps, lightlyruns beneath my flesh a

19、flame,and from my eyes no light, and rumblingcomes into my ears,and my skin grows damp, and tremblingall over racks me, and greener than the grassam i, and one step short of dyingi seem to myself. sapphopoem 31 note that poem 31 does not focus on the girl the girl is not even named nor is she mentio

20、ned much in the poem indeed, the poem focuses more on the man who is sitting beside the girlsapphopoem 31 but the poem really dwells on sappho and her reaction to her feelings for this girl poem 31 was, in fact, preserved among the writings of an ancient doctor who quoted it as a way of diagnosing l

21、ove sickness in modern terms, then, poem 31 is a “clinical pathology” of lovesapphopoem 31 the poem was, in fact, preserved among the writings of an ancient doctor who quoted it when he was trying to diagnose love sickness in a patient of his in modern terms, poem 31 is a “clinical pathology” of lov

22、esapphopoem 31 seen as a medical condition then, sappho claims that love makes her:dumb (“my tongue snaps”)feverish (“lightly runs beneath my flesh a flame”)blind (“and from my eyes no light”) deaf (“and rumbling comes into my ears”)sapphopoem 31 love makes sappho: sweaty (“and my skin grows damp”)

23、twitchy (“and trembling all over racks me”)pale (“and greener than the grass am i”)and catatonic (“and one step short of dying i seem to myself”)sapphopoem 31 thus, poem 31 is not a poem about a girl or even a girl flirting with someone else to make sappho jealous it is a poem about love and separat

24、ion, and what they do to a person physiologically which hints that there is much more to the situation than the words on the surface sapphopoem 31 after all, if sappho is looking at the man, and the man is facing the girl (“who is face to face with you”), then who is the girl looking at? sappho? if

25、so, does she have feelings for sappho? but shes not the point - love is!sapphopoem 1on a dappled throne, deathless goddess, aphrodite,zeus child, charmer, i beg of you:break me not with aching, nor with grief, lady, tame my heart! but come here, if ever before from over therewhen you heard my voice

26、from afaryou listened and left your fathers homeof gold and you camesapphopoem 1hitching up your chariot. lovely they that lead youthe swift sparrows above the darkling earthwings whirling countless from heavensent amidst us here, and in a flash appear and you, blessed goddess,the smiling face that

27、never dies,asked me what was wrong this time and whythis time i called hersapphopoem 1and what most of all my heart wished to have in my troubled way. “who is it this time im to turn back to your favor? who hurtsyou now, sappho dear?you know, if she runs, soon she will chase;and if she spurns presen

28、ts, some day shell give them; and if she rejects love, soon she will love, like it or not.” so,sapphopoem 1come to me even now, and from my hardships free meand from my cares, and all the things to bring aboutmy heart desires, bring about for me. and you, fight here beside me. sapphopoem 1 to the an

29、cient greeks, one of the strongest forces in the universe was eros (“love”) in poem 1 (the ode to aphrodite), sappho invokes aphrodite, the goddess of eros note her comic, sophisticated self-deprecation: “who is it this time . . ., sappho dear?”lyric poetry and epic lyric poetry seems very different

30、 from epic but lyric poetry is not a complete break from the epic poetry which preceded it sappho acknowledges her homeric ancestry in various ways even sometimes at the same time she is debunking epic verse cf. poem 16 (the ode to anactoria)lyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 16one man has his cavalr

31、y, another has his legions, yet another has his ships, on all the earthmost beautiful to him. but to me it is thesingle thing one loves. how easy it is to make this understoodto anyone, for, far outstripping mortalloveliness, helen left her manand a good man too!lyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 16l

32、eft him and went off to troy, sailingaway with no thought for her child or parents,not one glance back, but he led her astray,love did, at first sight. the eyes of brides are easy to turn, light things,lightly swayed by passionwhich makesme think now of anactoria,who isnt here now.lyric poetry and e

33、picsappho, poem 16i would rather see her lovely stepand her twinkling bright facethan lydians process in pomp andsoldiers pageantry.lyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 16 one man has his cavalry, another has his legions, yet another has his ships, on all the earthmost beautiful to him. but to me it is

34、 thesingle thing one loves. while sappho openly denounces homeric values, such as “soldiers pageantry” and insists instead that love controls our liveslyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 16 but sappho also borrows much from homer e.g., sappho composes poem 16 in ring composition, but on a much smaller

35、 scale than homerlyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 16 also note the way she make comparisons:how easy it is to make this understoodto anyone, for, far outstripping mortalloveliness, helen left her man cf. homeric similes helens passion is a “simile” for the power of eros in sapphos wordlyric poetry

36、and epic but one major difference between homer and sappho stands out while he looks back in time across the sea, she looks at the world around her while homer talks about aphrodite on some distant mountain centuries ago, sappho calls aphrodite to her, cf. poem 2lyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 2he

37、re to me from crete to this temple herethis shrine, where you have this graceful groveof apples, and the fragrant altars fume with frankincense.in here the cold water bubbles through branchesof apples, and with roses everythingsshaded, and glistening in the wind the leavesrain down gentle sleep.lyric poetry and epicsappho, poem 2in here the meadow horses graze flourishesin spring with flowers, and the windssoothing breathe . . . to there, you . . . lift, aphrodite, in golden goblets lightly whats mixed with our deligh