Summary

The speaker, the Greek poet Sappho, asks where her poetic inspiration has gone, as she feels she can no longer write. Thinking of her addressee, Philaenis, she realizes she can craft no words to accurately describe her beauty. She notes that her thoughts are only concerned with Philaenis, but that she desperately wants to be free of such thoughts because her desire for Philaenis is causing her poetic strife.

Sappho tells Philaenis that her image is permanently embedded in her heart, and this image has been destabilizing for her; she can no longer see things correctly or sensibly. Sappho both wishes to maintain and be rid of this image, and she says both options would be equally painful. She says that Philaenis is so beautiful that when Sappho compares her to gods, the gods are flattered. Furthermore, she says that she can make "blind...