Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics

At the turn of the twentieth century, Bliss Carman embarked on an audacious act of literary resurrection: imagine the complete songs of Sappho, the legendary lyric poet of ancient Lesbos whose work survives today only in tattered fragments. One Hundred Lyrics is his attempt to restore what time and history have scattered to the wind. These poems breathe new life into Sappho's world of love, longing, desire, and the transcendent beauty of the natural world. Carman's verse carries the weight of Greek antiquity while remaining distinctly modern in its emotional directness and musical cadence. The result is a collection that feels both like homage and original creation, as if Carman were channeling a lost voice across twenty-five centuries. For readers who have ever wondered what those missing stanzas might have contained, this book offers an answer that is at once imagined and intimately true to the spirit of the original poet.