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Love Poem

For those of us in love, we know all of the feelings that we have for the special person in your life. It can be very difficult to put those thoughts into words and so too often we simply do not utter many of the things that we wish we could. From these wonderful feelings the love poem first took root. From the very beginnings of civilization we have tried to harness the experience of love and that attempt has often resulted in a love poem. Some of them have lasted for thousands of years, still here today for us to read and realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Sappho - the "muse" of the love poem

One of the greatest and most celebrated poets in history. She was born about 2700 years ago and made a name for herself through her great talent in what is called lyric poetry. Her family was wealthy and she used that money to set up a school for girls on the island of Lesbos, where families sent their young women to be educated in such things as music, dance, and poetry. Most of the poems at the time were recited out loud with the accompaniment of music and thus called lyrical. It was considered one of the highest forms of art and a common form of entertainment for people at the time. There is only one complete love poem left to us in its entirety from Sappho, the rest remain in fragments and probably many, many more have vanished in the sands of time. But, what we do have left has given us a good glimpse into the Greek world at that time and the fact that human emotion, the longing and the yearning are things that we all share throughout time and space.

Just imagine the legacy that something as simple as a love poem can leave behind. As much as we are continually trying to define ourselves with art, so too did our ancestors. What we are left with are connections with our own past that would have been severed had it not been for a love poem that was not only celebrated in Sappho's time, but continues to touch at our hearts today.