Here, for example, is an excerpt from a poem by Swineburne entitled, appropriately enough, “Sapphics”: The sapphic, for instance: dozens of English sapphics from the sixteenth century onward attest to its virtual naturalization into the English tradition. “The grandest of all measures,” Tennyson called the classical alcaic meter but could it be brought over grandly into English? Other Greek and Latin lyric meters had been Englished with some success. Poets such as Swineburne, Tennyson, Watts, Hardy, and Kipling wrote (or attempted to write) Sapphic verse in English, as have many others, both before and since.Īn article concerning Tennyson’s interest in Greek poetic form points out how common Sapphic verse had become back in his day: Sapphic is notoriously challenging to write in English, so of course, many poets took it upon themselves to make the attempt. When Coleridge, for example, won the Cambridge “Greek Ode” prize, he won it with a poem written in Sapphic meter. The mandatory study of the poetry of Horace and the requirement to compose poetry in both ancient languages exposed students to this previously-neglected form. Sapphic verse resurfaced once again in 17th and 18th century England when mastery of the classical languages of Greek and Latin was required for students attending universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. The form was revived by the Roman poet Catullus and then “mainstreamed” into Latin verse by Horace, who wrote 25 of his 103 odes in Sapphic meter. Little of her poetry has survived but her metrical forms were admired, adopted, and adapted by other Greek poets who came after her. The term “Sapphic Verse” is derived from the name of the Greek poet, Sappho of Lesbos (630 BC-570 BC).

Recently, I submitted my poem to SCP and had it returned along with a suggestion that I append a short note of explanation before resubmitting it. I researched the subject and decided to try my hand at it.

My interest in Sapphic verse arose from a discussion thread on an SCP post some months ago.

Hendecasyllabic scansion