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1、Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Lyric Ageafter Homers day, the Greek world started to change dramaticallywith the fall of the Phoenicians to the Assyrian onslaught in the eighth century BCE, sea routes were opened all around the eastern Mediterranean basinGreeks became traders and money began pouring int
2、o GreeceChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Lyric Agebut keeping track of ones wealth requires some knowledge of accountingand accounting requires writing!so this new class of wealthy pre-classical Greeks had to learn how to writestarting around 700 BCE, literacy in Greece began to climbChapter 5: Lyric Poet
3、ryThe Lyric Agethese noveaux riches (“the newly wealthy”) were not always members of the established, traditional aristocracymany were bright young men who came from humble originsthese merchants did not necessarily have a deep investment in the “heroic past”Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Lyric Agein fa
4、ct, most of them would just as soon not have talked about their ancestors most of these people lived for now, not in some mythological pastas a result, these adventurous entrepeneurs wanted a type of poetry closer to their own experiences in lifeChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Lyric Agethat meant verses
5、which were fast and intense, and immediately rewardingthus, during the Lyric Age an evenings entertainment turned from the recitation of one long, stately poem by an oral bard like Homer to the performance of many short, emotional poems by a lyric poetChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Lyric Ageand the topi
6、c of this lyric poetry was almost invariably love or if not love, the need for immediate political changecf. the evolution in music of the modern age from operas (a century or more ago) to rock music todayChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric Poetrylyric poetry is very different from Homeric ep
7、ic, even just on the surfacelyric poems were composed in many different poetic meters (rhythms)Homer used only one type of verse everafter all, how many different verse forms can an oral poet (who works in oral formulas) be expected to master?Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric Poetryliteracy
8、 was an important element in this equationwriting allowed for greater poetic flexibilityif nothing else, poets could now erase and re-compose a lineerasing a word or correcting a line was something an oral poet like Homer could never have doneChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric Poetrymoreover
9、, a lyric poet could send a poem off in written form to be read by someone else in performanceHomer could not ever have done that eitherthus, lyric poetry could spread wherever there was a literate performer availablelyric poetry reached a much wider audience than oral poetry like HomersChapter 5: L
10、yric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric Poetrystill, lyric poetry was designed to be sung and heard in public, not read in privatemost lyric poems were designed to be read aloud at parties (or political rallies) to the accompaniment of the lyre (a stringed musical instrument)hence, the name “lyric”Chapter 5:
11、 Lyric PoetryStatuette of a Poet Playing the LyreChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric Poetrythe lyre is the ancient equivalent of the guitar todayit was associated with intense emotion, and often extreme behaviorseveral stories survive from antiquity of lyric poets who performed drunk and live
12、d in non-traditional lifestylesChapter 5: Lyric PoetryA Greek Vase Depicting a Lyric Poet in the Rapture of Performance Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Nature of Lyric PoetryGreek lyric poetry was much centered on the music behind the versetoo bad, then, that all the music of lyric poetry has been lostne
13、vertheless, the verse is gloriously beautiful all on its ownbut it only hints at the true power of this genre in its dayChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphothe best exponent of lyric poetry was a woman named Sapphoher poetry represents one of the very few womans voices to emerge from all of Greek and Roman
14、 antiquitythe power and beauty of her poetic voice was great enough to overcome the ancient worlds deep-seated misogynyChapter 5: Lyric PoetryA Greek Vase depicting the Lyric Poets Sappho and AlcaeusChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoshe lived on the Greek island of Lesbos, ca. 600 BCElittle is known abou
15、t her, except that she ran a sort of finishing schools for girlsshe wrote love poems to the girls therehence, our word “lesbian”Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoin large part because of her sexuality, later ages denounced her poetry as “immoral”even though her surviving poems never include sexually grap
16、hic or lurid passagesunlike many other ancient authors who include explicit passages but whose work has survivedChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphonevertheless, her work was censured and not copied or preserved the way other authors works werethe result was that most of her work was lostwhat little we hav
17、e today comes for the most part from quotes of her poetry found in the work of other authors Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphosome poems, however, have been preserved on ancient papyrithese are often only fragmentsit is possible that today we do not have even one complete poem by Sappho!all in all, the
18、loss of Sapphos poetry is one of the greatest literary catastrophes of all timeChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphomoreover, to focus on Sapphos sexual orientation is to miss the point of her poetryher songs almost invariably center around the intensity of feeling inspired by the objects of Sapphos affecti
19、onthat is, Sappho writes honestly and elegantly about herself, e.g. what loves does to herChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31He seems to me, that man, almost a godthe man, who is face to face with you,sitting close enough to you to hearyour sweet whisperingAnd your laughter, glistening, whichthe he
20、art in my breast beats for.For when on you I glance, I do not,not one sound, emit. Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31But my tongue snaps, lightlyruns beneath my flesh a flame,and from my eyes no light, and rumblingcomes into my ears,And my skin grows damp, and tremblingall over racks me, and green
21、er than the grassam I, and one step short of dyingI seem to myself. Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31note that Poem 31 does not focus on the girl the girl is not even namednor is she mentioned much in the poemindeed, the poem focuses more on the man who is sitting beside the girlChapter 5: Lyric
22、PoetrySapphoPoem 31but the poem really dwells on Sappho and her reaction to her feelings for this girlPoem 31 was, in fact, preserved among the writings of an ancient doctor who quoted it as a way of diagnosing love sickness in modern terms, then, Poem 31 is a “clinical pathology” of loveChapter 5:
23、Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31the poem was, in fact, preserved among the writings of an ancient doctor who quoted it when he was trying to diagnose love sickness in a patient of hisin modern terms, Poem 31 is a “clinical pathology” of loveChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31seen as a medical condition th
24、en, Sappho claims that love makes her:dumb (“my tongue snaps”)feverish (“lightly runs beneath my flesh a flame”)blind (“and from my eyes no light”) deaf (“and rumbling comes into my ears”)Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31love makes Sappho: sweaty (“And my skin grows damp”) twitchy (“and trembling
25、 all over racks me”)pale (“and greener than the grass am I”)and catatonic (“and one step short of dying I seem to myself”)Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31thus, Poem 31 is not a poem about a girlor even a girl flirting with someone else to make Sappho jealousit is a poem about love and separation
26、, and what they do to a person physiologically which hints that there is much more to the situation than the words on the surface Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 31after all, if Sappho is looking at the man, and the man is facing the girl (“who is face to face with you”), then who is the girl look
27、ing at? Sappho? if so, does she have feelings for Sappho?but shes not the point - Love is!Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 1On a dappled throne, deathless goddess, Aphrodite,Zeus child, charmer, I beg of you:break me not with aching, nor with grief, Lady, tame my heart! But come here, if ever befor
28、e from over therewhen you heard my voice from afaryou listened and left your fathers homeof gold and you cameChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 1Hitching up your chariot. Lovely they that lead youthe swift sparrows above the darkling earthwings whirling countless from heavensent amidst us here, And i
29、n a flash appear and you, blessed goddess,the smiling face that never dies,asked me what was wrong this time and whythis time I called herChapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 1And what most of all my heart wished to have in my troubled way. “Who is it this time Im to turn back to your favor? Who hurtsy
30、ou now, Sappho dear?You know, if she runs, soon she will chase;and if she spurns presents, some day shell give them; and if she rejects love, soon she will love, like it or not.” So,Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 1Come to me even now, and from my hardships free meand from my cares, and all the th
31、ings to bring aboutmy heart desires, bring about for me. And you, fight here beside me. Chapter 5: Lyric PoetrySapphoPoem 1to the ancient Greeks, one of the strongest forces in the universe was Eros (“love”)in Poem 1 (The Ode to Aphrodite), Sappho invokes Aphrodite, the goddess of Erosnote her comic
32、, sophisticated self-deprecation: “Who is it this time . . ., Sappho dear?”Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and Epiclyric poetry seems very different from epicbut lyric poetry is not a complete break from the epic poetry which preceded itSappho acknowledges her Homeric ancestry in various wayseve
33、n sometimes at the same time she is debunking epic versecf. Poem 16 (The Ode to Anactoria)Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16One man has his cavalry, another has his legions, yet another has his ships, on all the earthmost beautiful to him. But to me it is thesingle thing one
34、 loves. How easy it is to make this understoodto anyone, for, far outstripping mortalloveliness, Helen left her manand a good man too!Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16Left him and went off to Troy, sailingaway with no thought for her child or parents,not one glance back, bu
35、t he led her astray,Love did, at first sight. The eyes of brides are easy to turn, light things,lightly swayed by passionwhich makesme think now of Anactoria,who isnt here now.Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16I would rather see her lovely stepand her twinkling bright faceth
36、an Lydians process in pomp andsoldiers pageantry.Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16 One man has his cavalry, another has his legions, yet another has his ships, on all the earthmost beautiful to him. But to me it is thesingle thing one loves. while Sappho openly denounces Ho
37、meric values, such as “soldiers pageantry” and insists instead that love controls our livesChapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16but Sappho also borrows much from Homer e.g., Sappho composes Poem 16 in ring composition, but on a much smaller scale than HomerChapter 5: Lyric Poet
38、ryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 16also note the way she make comparisons:How easy it is to make this understoodto anyone, for, far outstripping mortalloveliness, Helen left her mancf. Homeric similesHelens passion is a “simile” for the power of Eros in Sapphos wordChapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Po
39、etry and Epicbut one major difference between Homer and Sappho stands out while he looks back in time across the sea, she looks at the world around herwhile Homer talks about Aphrodite on some distant mountain centuries ago, Sappho calls Aphrodite to her, cf. Poem 2Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetr
40、y and EpicSappho, Poem 2Here to me from Crete to this temple herethis shrine, where you have this graceful groveof apples, and the fragrant altars fume with frankincense.In here the cold water bubbles through branchesof apples, and with roses everythingsshaded, and glistening in the wind the leavesr
41、ain down gentle sleep.Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryLyric Poetry and EpicSappho, Poem 2In here the meadow horses graze flourishesin spring with flowers, and the windssoothing breathe . . . To there, you . . . lift, Aphrodite, in golden goblets lightly whats mixed with our delights, the nectarlike the wine,
42、 come pour! Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Significance of Lyric PoetryHomer takes the listener into a past and distant world of the gods and heroesSappho, instead, brings the gods to us and glorifies what happens in our worldshe gives our daily struggles an “epic” grandeur and a heroic sensibilityChapt
43、er 5: Lyric PoetryThe Significance of Lyric Poetrythat is, our lives here and now stand in the foreground of Sapphos poetryand Homers gods and heroes serve mainly to give our lives dimension and depthin Sapphos world view, we are what is important, not some mythical figuresAphrodites purpose is to r
44、escue us, not ParisChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Significance of Lyric Poetrybut even more important than this change in world view, lyric poets were clearly literateeven though they still recited their poetry in performanceno longer were poems composed spontaneously before an audience the way oral poe
45、ts like Homer had doneChapter 5: Lyric PoetryThe Significance of Lyric Poetrythis makes lyric poetry the beginning of true “literature” (i.e. written down in “letters”)literate poets can revise their work more easily and create a wider diversity of poetry most important of all, a literate poets work is more readily preserved than oral epicsassuming the poet is not censored!Chapter 5: Lyric PoetryGrammar Review 5: Parts of Speech
