person
Sappho
Archaic Greek lyric poet of Lesbos (c. 630–570 BC), the supreme poet of erotic longing. Rilke gives her three poems of address between Sappho and the girl Eranna.
Reading notes
- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge §395 Sappho
The archaic Greek poet of Lesbos (c.630--570 BC), supreme lyricist of love; the 'remotest figure' the centuries lost by seeking her in fate rather than in her love.
- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge §450 the poetess
'The poetess' is Sappho of Lesbos: Galen records that to say 'the poetess' was to mean her, as 'the poet' meant Homer.
- New Poems §4 the beautiful goddess
Eranna, a girl-companion swept far by Sappho's verse, feels the goddess of love living through the poet; the first of Rilke's three Sappho poems.