Tone In Sappho's Poetry

Sappho lived during the sixth century BC on the island of Lesbos. There is very little that is to know about the life of Sappho, she is one of the greatest women of Greek lyrics, and through her work of both lyrics and narrative poems she focused on beauty and love. Catullus was a Latin poet from the late Roman Republic, his style of writing is mostly neoteric poetry. Sappho’s writings are softer and more feminine, she would express how passion, relationships and jealousy felt like. Her writings are in first person, this allows her to find a deep human connection through personal emotions. However, Catullus writing style shows his strong and more masculine emotions. He also uses more sarcasm and angst to have a different tone in his writings. Catullus found inspiration from Sappho’s poetry, and in most of their works there are many similarities. There is one thing that stands out, Sappho’s lyric poetry is more feminine than Catullus’, which tends to be extremely masculine. Both Sappho and Catullus are lyric poets, most of Sappho’s …show more content…
Sappho also wrote odes to the goddesses and especially to Aphrodite, who is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. In this poem Sappho begs Aphrodite to protect her heart and asks about her love sickness, because the person she loves doesn 't love her back, and thats all she wants. And Aphrodite has her own voice, when she talks back to Sappho with her advice. “Smiling your immoral smile you asked, What ailed me now that made me call you again?..” (page 562, line 14-16). Sappho is reaching out to the goddess because they are free from death, and they have nothing to lose, so they don 't have the same emotional problems as a human would have. “ For, let her run, she will soon run after..” (page 563, line 21-22). Aphrodite promise Sappho that her love will eventually turn around and love her