Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sappho
-
Standard Name: Sappho
Birth Name: Sappho
Used Form: Sapho
Sappho
, the female poet who stands at the head of the lyric tradition in Europe, has been a major figure of identification, of desire, of influence, of adulation, and of opprobrium in British women's writing, though little remains of her texts. All of her estimated 12,000 lines of verse has been lost except a handful of complete poems and many fragments, either quotations of her work by other writers, or scraps deciphered from papyri used to wrap mummies in ancient Egypt. This mutilated body of work amounts to somewhere around seven hundred intelligible lines.
Fenton sets out to paint a a familiar picture of the everyday occurrences, manners, and habits of life of persons undistinguished either by wealth or fame
Fenton, Elizabeth. The Journal of Mrs. Fenton. Editor Lawrence, Sir Henry, Edward Arnold.
1-2
in British India. But this is largely unfulfilled...
Residence
Edna St Vincent Millay
It was in urgent need of renovations which proved costly and exhausting. In time order was imposed: a bust of Sappho
was set up, Millay's extensive book collection was shelved, and her even more extensive...
Reception
Anna Akhmatova
AA
arrived at Oxford for the conferring of a D.Litt. degree (at the instigation in part of Isaiah Berlin
); at the ceremony she was called the the Russian Sappho.
Feinstein, Elaine. Anna of all the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
272
Haight, Amanda. Anna Akhmatova : A Poetic Pilgrimage. Oxford University Press.
189
Reception
L. E. L.
LEL became strongly associated with a highly gendered construction of female poetic vocation. As Virginia Blain
has argued, she became (with Hemans
, and following their deaths on the cusp of the era) one progenitor...
Reception
Charlotte Lennox
The Gentleman's Magazine published two poems about this volume, one in June 1749 and one in November 1750. One calls the author Britain's Sappho
.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
19: 278; 20: 518
With the second piece the GM...
Reception
Ruth Pitter
During her lifetime RP
was deeply appreciated by some readers. C. S. Lewis
scatters through his letters such remarks as Whenever I re-read your poems, I blame myself for not re-reading them oftener.
King, Don W. “The Anatomy of a Friendship: the correspondence of Ruth Pitter and C. S. Lewis, 1946-1962: Mythlore, Summer 2003”. Findarticles.
Printing of the book was limited to one hundred copies. (Robert Browning
received no. 2.) It was beautifully bound in vellum and printed in two ink colours: MF
's poems in black and Sappho
Publishing
Mary Lamb
Mary Lamb
's poem A Lady's Sapphic, an attempt to render Sappho
's style and metre in English, was anonymously printed in The Champion.
Prance, Claude Annett. Companion to Charles Lamb: A Guide to People and Places, 1760-1847. Mansell.
188
Publishing
Maureen Duffy
After this came Paper Wings, published in late 2014 in a limited edition of 100 copies in spiral binding. This resulted from an installation of the same title, shown by Enitharmon Press
in an...
Author summary
Michael Field
As MF
, Katharine Harris Bradley and Edith Cooper published twenty-seven tragedies, mostly verse dramas on historical or classical subjects. Only one of their plays was staged, and it received poor reviews. Their unique literary...
Author summary
Sarah Lewis
Sarah Anna Lewis
was a mid-nineteenth-century American poet who is today better known for her association with Edgar Allan Poe
than for her writings. She began her career with frequent periodical publications, then published four...
Performance of text
Natalie Clifford Barney
NCB
's Equivoque, a play about Sappho
, was privately performed in her garden.
Causse, Michèle. Berthe ou un demi-siècle auprès de l’Amazone. Tierce.
249
Performance of text
Maureen Duffy
MD
wrote a dramatic monologue to be spoken by Sappho
(whose poems she had just been writing about), which was performed in London in 2010.
Duffy, Maureen. “My Life with Aphra Behn”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
19
, No. 2.
244
Other Life Event
Alison Uttley
She had precognitive dreams, including one about Sappho
.
Literary responses
Judith Cowper Madan
JCM
reaped a good deal of praise during her lifetime, but most of it must have been of questionable value to her as a poet. Pope
's To Erinna is typical in casting her as...
