Sappho's Poem He Seems To Me Equal To God
Literary Analysis - He Seems To Me Equal To Gods The poem I chose to analyze is He seems to me equal to gods. After reading this poem numerous times, I believe it is about a woman’s lust for a man. She talks about how he is “equal to gods” (Sappho 1), he “puts the heart in my chest on wings” (Sappho 6), he makes “fire racing under skin and in eyes no sight and drumming fills ears” (Sappho 10-12). My take on this poem is that she met this man, and after a short time together, she wants a relationship with him, whether it is short term or long term. This poem strikes me as more about sex than actual love because on the last line, she says “But all is to be dared, because even a person on poverty” (Sappho 17). This is the last line we have available to us, however, I read that as going into that she can’t have him. She says “whoever he is who opposite you sits and listens close” (Sappho 2-3), this also indicates that it may not be
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Hyperbole’s use exaggeration for emphasis and she does this in that line. Her exaggeration here is meant to show how excited she gets when he is around her, or even in sight. By making this statement, she shows the amount of lust she has for the man she is discussion. Just seeing him is enough to make her heart flutter and also make her skin race like fire. Another figure of speech that was in this poem was a paradox. She writes, “He seems to me equal to gods that man.” (Sappho 1) I consider this to be a paradox because there were gods that they worshipped back then and the man she spoke of could have been one of them. This statement seems absurd in the fact that she is lusting for a god; however, it is a possibility that he was one of their worshipped gods. She doesn’t go into enough detail or explanation of who this man is she is writing
Hyperbole’s use exaggeration for emphasis and she does this in that line. Her exaggeration here is meant to show how excited she gets when he is around her, or even in sight. By making this statement, she shows the amount of lust she has for the man she is discussion. Just seeing him is enough to make her heart flutter and also make her skin race like fire. Another figure of speech that was in this poem was a paradox. She writes, “He seems to me equal to gods that man.” (Sappho 1) I consider this to be a paradox because there were gods that they worshipped back then and the man she spoke of could have been one of them. This statement seems absurd in the fact that she is lusting for a god; however, it is a possibility that he was one of their worshipped gods. She doesn’t go into enough detail or explanation of who this man is she is writing