A postcard from the seaside
by cricketjeff on July 11, 2008. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
I wish that you were here with me
To build fine castles in the sand
I’d walk with you beside the sea
And hold your hand
We’d kiss beneath the pier tonight
And soon we’d have our whole lives planned
I’d wrap you in my arms so tight
And hold your hand
This postcard brings my love to you
I know that you will understand
I’d never wish to say adieu
Just hold your hand
Author notes
A postcard loveletter in Sapphic Ode form.
PerVirtuous points out, quite correctly, that these are not the traditional
Sapphic stanzas, Sappho herself used (amongst many other meters) three
hendacasyllabic lines consisting of a trochee, a Spondee (or sometimes another
trochee) a dactyl a trochee and a spondee, followed by a pentasyllabic line
consisting of a dactyl and a spondee. Sappho of course would never have rhymed.
The exact form to render a Sapphic in English has been debated back at least as
far as Webbe’s 1585 treatise on the English Poetic Arts. The form I have used
above was used extensively by Pope and described by him as a Sapphic.
I personally just like the form
English