Adam Turner
Karen Scheafer
HUM 2211
4 March 2012
Sappho’s Hero
Sappho’s poem “He is more than a hero” represents the Classical style of lyric poets from the Hellenic culture (ca. 610-ca. 580 B.C.E.).
Consisting of three stanzas filled with a combination of desire and sexuality, Sappho’s poem “reflects the intense love of life and generally negative view of death that pervaded the Hellenic world”( Fiero 127). This poem, like most of Sappho’s other works, is in the form of “melic monodies”( Dickie) which means it would likely have been sung along with music being played in the background. She uses the metric pattern which is now known as the ‘Sapphic” stanza.
She uses short lines to describe the main character in her poem in order to introduce the main focus of the poem. Her use of imagery allows the reader to visualize every emotion she is expressing in the poem. This lyric poetry consists of personal feelings and self-consciousness. Even so, Sappho manages to fit a vast amount of passion and sexuality into a four- line stanza. This work is a perfect example of “Sapphic love poetry”(Dickie) as well as an exquisite combination of “sense and sound”(Fiero 127).
