Analysis of Sappho - A Monodrama
Robert Southey 1774 (Bristol) – 1843 (London)
To leap from the promontory of LEUCADIA was believed by the Greeks to be
a remedy for hopeless love, if the self-devoted victim escaped with
life. Artemisia lost her life in the dangerous experiment: and Sappho is
said thus to have perished, in attempting to cure her passion for Phaon.
(Scene the promontory of Leucadia.)
This is the spot:--'tis here Tradition says
That hopeless Love from this high towering rock
Leaps headlong to Oblivion or to Death.
Oh 'tis a giddy height! my dizzy head
Swims at the precipice--'tis death to fall!
Lie still, thou coward heart! this is no time
To shake with thy strong throbs the frame convuls'd.
To die,--to be at rest--oh pleasant thought!
Perchance to leap and live; the soul all still,
And the wild tempest of the passions husht
In one deep calm; the heart, no more diseas'd
By the quick ague fits of hope and fear,
Quietly cold!
Presiding Powers look down!
In vain to you I pour'd my earnest prayers,
In vain I sung your praises: chiefly thou
VENUS! ungrateful Goddess, whom my lyre
Hymn'd with such full devotion! Lesbian groves,
Witness how often at the languid hour
Of summer twilight, to the melting song
Ye gave your choral echoes! Grecian Maids
Who hear with downcast look and flushing cheek
That lay of love bear witness! and ye Youths,
Who hang enraptur'd on the empassion'd strain
Gazing with eloquent eye, even till the heart
Sinks in the deep delirium! and ye too
Shall witness, unborn Ages! to that song
Of warmest zeal; ah witness ye, how hard,
Her fate who hymn'd the votive hymn in vain!
Ungrateful Goddess! I have hung my lute
In yonder holy pile: my hand no more
Shall wake the melodies that fail'd to move
The heart of Phaon--yet when Rumour tells
How from Leucadia Sappho hurl'd her down
A self-devoted victim--he may melt
Too late in pity, obstinate to love.
Oh haunt his midnight dreams, black NEMESIS!
Whom, self-conceiving in the inmost depths
Of CHAOS, blackest NIGHT long-labouring bore,
When the stern DESTINIES, her elder brood.
And shapeless DEATH, from that more monstrous birth
Leapt shuddering! haunt his slumbers, Nemesis,
Scorch with the fires of Phlegethon his heart,
Till helpless, hopeless, heaven-abandon'd wretch
He too shall seek beneath the unfathom'd deep
To hide him from thy fury.
How the sea
Far distant glitters as the sun-beams smile,
And gayly wanton o'er its heaving breast
Phoebus shines forth, nor wears one cloud to mourn
His votary's sorrows! God of Day shine on--
By Man despis'd, forsaken by the Gods,
I supplicate no more.
How many a day,
O pleasant Lesbos! in thy secret streams
Delighted have I plung'd, from the hot sun
Screen'd by the o'er-arching groves delightful shade,
And pillowed on the waters: now the waves
Shall chill me to repose.
Tremendous height!
Scarce to the brink will these rebellious limbs
Support me. Hark! how the rude deep below
Roars round the rugged base, as if it called
Its long-reluctant victim! I will come.
One leap, and all is over! The deep rest
Of Death, or tranquil Apathy's dead calm
Welcome alike to me. Away vain fears!
Phaon is cold, and why should Sappho live?
Phaon is cold, or with some fairer one--
Thought worse than death!
(She throws herself from the precipice.)
Scheme | AXXB C XXDXX XCXXCXXXBXXXXXEXXXBFXEXBXGXXBXX HXGXXHFXXA AXIBBXG XXBXXX XXXXXIXXXBD X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111011010010110111 0100110110101010011 11101001000100011 11111000101101011 10110100 1101110101 11011111001 1110100111 1101011101 1101001111 1111011111 111111011 1111111101 0111010111 0011010101 0111011101 101111101 1001 0101011 0111111101 0111110101 1001010111 11110101001 10110101010 110110101 1111010101 111110101 1111110011 110101011 101100110101 10010100011 1101110111 1101110111 011101101 0101011111 0101011111 1101001111 01111101 1101001101 0101010111 1101010011 111111100 110100011 110101111 1011000101 0101111101 1100111100 110101111 11010100101 111101011 1111110 101 1101010111 0110101101 1011111111 111011111 1101010101 1111 11001 110101101 0101111011 110101010101 011010101 111101 0101 1101110101 0111101101 1101011111 1101010111 1101110011 11110111 1001110111 11101111 111111101 1111 110110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,247 |
Words | 563 |
Sentences | 41 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 1, 5, 31, 10, 7, 6, 11, 1 |
Lines Amount | 76 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 280 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:55 min read
- 133 Views
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"Sappho - A Monodrama" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31877/sappho---a-monodrama>.
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