School Days

Cultural Foundations I/Reichert
Critical Response on “Sappho to Phaon” by Ovid
9/9/03

After reading this poetic epistle, it’s clear to me that Sappho was a very conflicted person. Her poetry tends to be very melodramatic. A lot of this, however, comes off that way due to the translation of the text. The reason I feel she is conflicted is because throughout the letter, she is running through all these different feelings. In the first column, the reader witnesses Sappho being very upset with the leaving of Phaon. She states that her romantic, lyrical style of music has been transformed to discordant elegies and that her lyre no longer plays the cherubic melodies it once did. It is in the second column of the first page that she goes on the attack and begins to call Phaon for herself; “...I am yours by right” (line 63)...