Sappho Quotes

“LXVII

INDOORS the fire is kindled;
Beechwood is piled on the hearthstone;
Cold are the chattering oak-leaves;
And the ponds frost-bitten.

Softer than rainfall at twilight,
Bringing the fields benediction
And the hills quiet and greyness,
Are my long thoughts of thee.

How should thy friend fear the seasons?
They only perish of winter
Whom Love, audacious and tender,
Never hath visited.”
― Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics

“Loving Heart,
There must be an end to summer,
And the flute be laid aside.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“In the meadow ground the frogs
With their deafening flutes begin,—
The old madness of the world 15
In their golden throats again.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“the white-maned horses of the surge, 10
Plunging in thunderous onset to the shore,
Trample and break and charge along the sand!”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“Love is so strong a thing,
The very gods must yield,
When it is welded fast
With the unflinching truth.
Love is so frail a thing, 5
A word, a look, will kill.
Oh lovers, have a care
How ye do deal with love.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“And there is nothing more in this great world
Than thou and I, and the blue dome of dusk.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“How to say I love you:
What, if I but live it,
Were the use in that, love?
  Small, indeed.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“Many a saying sounds like truth,
Until Truth itself is heard.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“A beautiful child is mine,
Formed like a golden flower,
Cleis the loved one.
And above her I value
Not all the Lydian land, 5
Nor lovely Hellas.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“Ye who have the sleeping world
  In your care,
"Guard the linen sweet and cool, 5
Where a lovely golden head
With its dreams of mortal bliss
  Slumbers now!”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“And not for all our questioning 10
Shall we discover more than joy,
Nor find a better thing than love!”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“In a land that knows not
Bitterness nor sorrow,
She has found out all 15
  Of truth at last.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“the gods have given thee
Their best gift, an equal mind 5
That can only love, be glad,
  And fear not.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“the soft pleading magic
The green wood heard of old.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“XXIII I loved thee, Atthis, in the long ago,
When the great oleanders were in flower
In the broad herded meadows full of sun.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“But more than all sounds,
Surer, serener,
Fuller with passion
And exultation,
Let the hushed whisper 40
In thine own heart say,
How I adore thee.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“XVIII The courtyard of her house is wide
And cool and still when day departs.
Only the rustle of leaves is there
  And running water.
And then her mouth, more delicate 5
Than the frail wood-anemone,
Brushes my cheek, and deeper grow
  The purple shadows.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“In the slow ample beauty of the world,
And the unutterable glad release 15
Within the temple of the holy night.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

“SAPPHO WHO BROKE OFF A FRAGMENT OF HER SOUL FOR US TO GUESS AT.”
― Bliss Carman, Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics