Sapphic Stanza

By Lawrence Eberhart | April 17, 2014 | didactic

The Sapphic Stanza is classic Aeolic verse and attributed to the
poetess Sappho 6 BC, Greece. Plato so admired her that he spoke of
her not as lyricist, poet but called her the 10th Muse. Her poems
spoke of relationships and were marked by emotion. In a male
dominated era she schooled and mentored women artists on the
island of Lesbos and her writing has often been equated with
woman-love. “Rather than addressing the gods or recounting epic
narratives such as those of Homer, Sappho’s verses speak from one
individual to another.” NPOPP.
Sappho’s work has often been referred to as fragments, because only
two of her poems have survived in whole with the vast majority of
her work surviving in fragments either from neglect, natural
disasters, or possible censorship.
Sapphic Stanza is:
• quantitative verse, measuring long / short vowels. In English we

transition to metric measure of stress / unstressed syllables

which warps the rhythm a bit but brings it into context the
English ear can hear. L= long s = short
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. This evolved to a

quatrain during the Renaissance period from the ancient variable

3 to 4 line stanzas. The quatrain is made up of 3 Sapphic lines
followed by an Adonic line which is usually written as a parallel
to L3.
Sapphic line = 11 syllables, trochaic with the central foot being a
dactyl
Adonic line = 5 syllables, a dactyl followed by a trochee
(see below for more detail on these two components)
• The modern Sapphic scansion should look like this (Stressed or

Long = L; unstressed or short = s )

Quantitative Verse (L=long syllable * s=short syllable)
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
 Lss-Ls
with substituted spondee
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
Lss-Ls
• originally unrhymed, in the Middle Ages the stanza acquired
rhyme, rhyme scheme abab. Because of the predominant use of
trochee and dactyls the rhyme will generally be feminine or a 2
syllable rhyme with the last syllable unstressed.
• Adonic line is most often written as a parallel to a previous
line. It is the last line of the Sapphic stanza. It is composed
in 5 syllables, a dactyl followed by a trochee. It can also be
found as a pattern for the refrain in song to honor Adonis,
from which it derived its name.
“death has come near me.”
last line of Like the gods
. . . by Sappho 4th century BC
edited by Richmond Lattimore
Quantitative Verse
Lss-Ls
Meaningless prattle. —jvg
• Sapphic line -Since the Renaissance period the Sapphic
line has been recognized as being a 5 foot trochaic line with
the central foot being a dactyl. Prior to the Renaissance
period this 11 syllable trochaic pattern was known as the
“lesser” Sapphic line and the Sapphic line was a
combination of the lesser Sapphic line and an adonic
line.After Renaissance Sapphic line Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls : Passion, lust, consumed our
beginnings fully.
Prior to Renaissance Sapphic line Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls,- Lss Ls : greed to love? It happened
deceptively, tricking emotions.
Apparently, the technical terms of “lesser” Sapphic and Sapphic lines have been corrupted
over time.
Pasted
from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1
240#adonic
My Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful resource at PMO
I am restating the specifications for the 21st century English writing
poets, knowing full well that academicians may insist we have
corrupted Sappho’s use of long and short vowel sounds. A real poet
might strive to make those sounds and the syllabic accents coincide,
then none can argue.
A Sapphic Stanza is:
Stanzaic, consisting of any number of quatrains.
Syllabic, each stanza consisting 3 Sapphic Lines plus a Adonic line.
Metrical. The Sapphic lines being trochaic with the central foot being
a dactyl (11 syllables), and The Adonic lines being a dactyl
followed by a trochee (5 syllables)
Rhymed, the pattern being abab.
Example Poem
Quantitative Verse (Sapphic Stanza)
Seek out passion, write of the trials that poets
face, with no complaint but with guidance, using
items neither trite nor near dying, so it’s
true and amusing.