Sappho

Before this class I was not familiar with the work of Sappho. Her form of writing is completely different than the works we’ve discussed in the past. The language is more blunt and straight forward; displayed by her willingness to openly talk about sexuality as she does. Her poems are a little hard to interpret because they tend to send off mixed messages. Some unique characteristics of Sappho’s poems include the author’s name in her own work, and the ambiguity as to whether she is referring to a man or a woman. Sappho speaks of love between all genders. The word lesbian derived from Sappho.