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Sappho |
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The greatest importance of Sappho in literary history has been her contribution toward the definition of the lyric genre. While her early date and her gender guaranteed her a position of major significance, it was her brilliant creativity that made her a figure of renown. Sappho's poems -- of which only a handful of fragments survive -- have been applauded by readers in all eras, and she has been regarded by many as one of the greatest poets of European history. Ancient and modern critics alike use terms such as "incandescent" and "a marvel" in response to her passionate intensity. Before Sappho poets such as Archilochus had used the lyric to challenge or interrogate social norms with the individual voice, but in Sappho's works subjective emotion reaches new heights of intellectual dignity, comparable almost to Plato or, later, Bernard of Clairvaux. In emphatic directness, using few figures of speech, she celebrates love as the highest of human faculties while recognizing its complex nature, including elements of jealousy, rivalry, and aggression.
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