The moon has set and the Pleiades
Time passes, time passes, and I lie alone.
Sappho.
.
Sleepless.
I watch the stars cross the darkness
of the window
and wait for sleep to come as a lover
and embrace me.
All hope and promise has left me
and in the endless hours,
I think of you long ago in Lesbos,
waiting alone,
And I wish that sleep or my love
could come to me.
I found this little poem recently from long ago when I was serving in the RAF in the last world war. I don't remember the circumstances
that prompted it but it was likely to be a little homesickness and probably something nasty next day. I liked its simplicity, and since
my muse has been a little shy of late I post this. I hope somebody likes it.
Sleepless.
-
windowfrost
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[quote="David"]Well I like it. That may be due in part to what you tell us about the poem's history, but only in part. Sappho was a strange choice of muse, though, wasn't she?
Cheers
David[/quote
David is right, I think, maybe you could try to fit the story of how you came to write it in somewhere?
Just a suggestion(or typing out loud.. or is thinking out type?..thinking with my fingers? No idea)
RM
Cheers
David[/quote
David is right, I think, maybe you could try to fit the story of how you came to write it in somewhere?
Just a suggestion(or typing out loud.. or is thinking out type?..thinking with my fingers? No idea)
RM
Petronius,
Loved the read. S2 reads a shade better than S1. Let Sappho remain a mystery here. Adds to the feel. Enjoyed.
Loved the read. S2 reads a shade better than S1. Let Sappho remain a mystery here. Adds to the feel. Enjoyed.
How sad it is that to most people Sappho equals Lesbianism. Both the Greeks and the Romans regarded her as one of the great lyric poets.
She was read and enjoyed for centuries. She had a husband and a daughter and reputedly killed herself when a young man declined her advances.
I think it was the Victorians who used her name and island for a euphemism. We have so little of her work left. The church, the great presever
of manuscripts, did not approve of her subjects. At the time I wrote the poem I was intoxicated with her poetry for I had just begun to
be able to read her work, a particularly difficult dialect of Greek. (Aeolian) Alas I can't read even Attic Greek. A language ,like a limb,
atrophies if not used.
''
She was read and enjoyed for centuries. She had a husband and a daughter and reputedly killed herself when a young man declined her advances.
I think it was the Victorians who used her name and island for a euphemism. We have so little of her work left. The church, the great presever
of manuscripts, did not approve of her subjects. At the time I wrote the poem I was intoxicated with her poetry for I had just begun to
be able to read her work, a particularly difficult dialect of Greek. (Aeolian) Alas I can't read even Attic Greek. A language ,like a limb,
atrophies if not used.
''
I am sorry. I seem to have confused everybody. I am not very good at arranging things and I confused people by spacing the superscription
badly. It is a quotation from Sappho which I suppose prompted the poem. Thank you for your comments. P.
badly. It is a quotation from Sappho which I suppose prompted the poem. Thank you for your comments. P.
You could have used the quotation in italics. Just a thought. I'm beginning to like this work. Great poem.
So I will revise my statement. You've written a great little poem here In my humble opinion.