From the NYR blog:
Waiting at the busy intersection, it suddenly occurred to me that if the old Greek poetess, Sappho, could see what I’m seeing now, she would not only understand nothing, but she would be terrified out of her wits. If, on the other hand, she could read the poems that I had just been reading, she would nod with recognition, since, like her own, many of these new poems spoke directly of the sufferings and joys of one human being. Suspicious of every variety of official truth, they brazenly proclaimed their own, while troubled and unsure of what the person whose life they were describing amounts to. This voice, which Sappho would recognize, has continued to speak to us quietly in poems since the beginning of lyric poetry.Her modern reputation (as the founder of lyric poetry) is actually a fine revenge for the way the ancient world viewed her, as a freak of nature:
"At the same time as [Alcaeus and Pittacus] flourished Sappho, a marvellous creature (thaumaston chrema): in all recorded history I know of no woman who even came close to rivalling her as a poet." (Strabo, Geography)image credit
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