heather

“I have not had one word from her

Frankly I wish I were dead
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to me, "This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly."

I said, "Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love

"If you forget me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared

"all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck

"myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them

"while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song...”
― Sappho

“their heart grew cold
they let their wings down”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“My whole life long I learn'd to love,
This hour my utmost art I prove.
And speak my passion—— heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? 'Tis well!”
― Robert Browning, The Poetry of Robert Browning

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth