Very few fragments of Sappho's actual poetry survive, much of what is credited to her is glosses and expansions by others.
But that is one of her most beautiful fragments.
Burne-Jones, Hesperus - The Evening Star
Posted on 10/11/2009 2:08:20 PM PDT by NYer
I wonder if Tolkein knew this poem.
I can't decide if I like the poem "The Happy Trinity is her home" - parts of it are very good but it has some jarring lines in it. Lewis was better as a prose writer than a poet, although his ambitions were that way.
The one earlier in the thread, the one by Sappho — I was thinking about the elves love for Elbereth/Varda.
I agree that Lewis didn’t really have the gorgeous diction his subject matter sometimes required.
I think his psychological descriptive gift is very accurate. I also find the passage upsetting, but I have seen the flight from insight that the dwarf represents.
TO have “Veritas” as a motto is really quite frightening sometimes. The truth about me is sometimes so unattractive that I fear I flee from it.
You have lots of company. As Lewis also said, we’re clothed in filthy rags and dripping with mud and slime and our breath smells.
Very few fragments of Sappho's actual poetry survive, much of what is credited to her is glosses and expansions by others.
But that is one of her most beautiful fragments.
Burne-Jones, Hesperus - The Evening Star
My daughter said, when reminded that her body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, "With me, He has a mud hut!" Please say a little prayer for her, she's quitting smoking, has 3 wks under her belt.
Bless her heart, prayers for sure. Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things anybody can do.
I haven’t read word one (not counting this bit) of Sappho. I have something to which to look forward, uh... to, um. which.
I ignore all that stuff - we just don't KNOW if she was a lesbian, or married, or even for sure who her father was. So I think the best thing to do is read the actual fragments we have left, and resist the temptation to speculate on her biography (or to add on to the poems).
An excellent (and very fair-minded) overview is here: The Divine Sappho.
Heh. How well I know...
“Well, Our Lady’s mantle in that icon is based on the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”
Plainly. What strikes me is the use of the “almond” shape (called a mandalora) and the shape of the halo. I know that the madalora is used in medieval western woodcuts and some stone carving, but I have never seen it in an icon save for with Christ. The “star” figure is in reality a sort of halo and again, aside from with Christ and +Symeon the New Theologian, I’ve never seen it used.
That’s very beautiful. I especially love the sheep and the goats being brought back together.
Yet the sheep and the goats . . . and the Star . . .
I think it's as C.S. Lewis said - all through history God was breathing hints and inklings to those who were paying attention. Even the pagans were given a share in His grace.
So true. I read a wonderful book, written by a Jewish scholar who became a Christian, and his thinking is that all the Jewish festivals were put in place by God as foreshadowings of the future Sacraments. Each festival has a mirror image in a Sacrament— and in the future events in the history of the world. Everything was done to insure that as many Jews as possible would recognize, on a visceral level, the truth in Christ’s words and the fulfillment of the Sacraments.
I also think we are imprinted to recognize it right down to our genetic code. We are healthier when we take a little wine. Psychologists tell us confession is good for our psyches. Children are healthiest when they have one committed father and mother. Humans need emotional and spiritual nourishment. Every fiber of our being is designed to search for God’s Truth. I had not heard the C.S. Lewis quote but I am pleased to agree with him.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful quotes with me!
I don’t know if Tolkein knew that beautiful poem, but he sure knew Melian:
She is a Maia of the race of the Ainur, akin to Yavanna. Before the First Age, in the Years of the Trees, she leaves the gardens of Lórien and goes to Middle-earth, and there she falls in love with the Elven-king Elu Thingol, King Greymantle, and with him rules the kingdom of Doriath. She has a child with Thingol, a daughter named Lúthien, said to be the fairest and most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. Melian’s line of descent is the half-elven.
All completely true, of course! ;o)
Oh, I recognized your name right away. For bio and pics, read the Silmarllion. ;-)
And Lúthien was Tolkien’s pet name for his wife (trust them to have pet names with a back story). It’s on their tombstone.
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