Olga Broumas: Sappho's Gymnasium

Page numbers refer to Rave: Copper Canyon Press, 1999

Comment:

Length/form: A sequence of lyric fragments rather than a composite poem. In this, the final chapter of the volume, the poetry is at its most sparse, lacking grammar and formal syntax and structured only by line and section breaks.

Allusion to classical figure: Sappho is evoked as Broumas and Begley's poetic predecessor, whilst subjects of her poems, Kleis and Eros, are alluded to through re-workings of the Sapphic fragments (fr.132 and 130 in Lobel & Page 1955). Homer is also mentioned.

Allusion to classical place: Lesvos (Lesbos ) is referred to for its associations with Sappho and Odysseus Elytis.

Relationship to classical text (author/language/title of work): In this sequence it is the fragmentary nature of Sappho's lyric and the suggestive qualities of her detached imagery which are explored.

Close translation of words/phrases/excerpts: 'I have a young girl good as blossoming gold...' is a reworking of Sappho fr.132. 'Limblooser sweetbitter' refers to Eros in fr.130. 'Eros wind' evokes the simile of fr.47.

Classical/post-classical intertexts:

Michael Field: Broumas and Begley's collaboration recalls that of Katherine Bradley (1846-1914) and niece, Edith Cooper (1862-1913) who published poetry under the pseudonym ‘Michael Field'. Their collection Long Ago (1889) consists of poetic re-workings of the Sapphic fragments. As in Sappho's Gymnasium their work alludes to an 'eroticised textual mediation' in the act of dual authorship, which celebrates the lesbian eroticism of Sappho's poetry (Prins 1997:232).

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle 1886-1961): The condensed, suggestive fragments which make up the sequence evoke some of the disciplines of the Imagist poets and particularly H.D., whose poetry often emulates Sappho's lyricism (cf. Johnson 2007:140). ‘Fragment Thirty-six', for instance, uses the Sapphic fragment as the point of departure for a new poem, which aims to distil a poetic essence, both personal and Sapphic, building to a pitch of abstracted emotion (Collected Poems, 1984). However, in Sappho's Gymnasium, this palimpsestic practice of writing over and into the ancient text results in an equally fragmented modern work (Cf. Snyder 1997:136 and Rohrbach 1996 on H.D.'s palimpsestic style).

Odysseus Elytis (1911-1996): Elytis frequently alludes to Sappho in his poetry and has translated the fragments into modern Greek (Elytis 1985). The Imagistic and Surrealist qualities, use of free verse and obsession with the Greek language which characterise his work, merge with Sapphic influences in ‘With Both Light and Death, 8', where he experiments with a fragmented style, mimicking torn papyrus remains (The Collected Poems, 2004). References to the poetry of both Sappho and Elytis are closely woven into the fabric of ‘Sappho's Gymnasium'.

Guy Davenport (1927-2005): Broumas and Begley's disconnected but suggestive fragments perhaps owe something to Guy Davenport's translations of Sappho. His poetic renderings allude to a sense which emerges despite, or even because of, the text's fragmentary nature (Davenport, 1965).

Further Comment:

In stripping their poetry of narrative and syntactical constraints Broumas and Begley not only site themselves in a poetic tradition spanning from Sappho to Elytis but also extend this cross-cultural process of collaboration towards the reader, inviting intuitive readings which actively participate in the construction of meaning.

Critical Work(s):

Collecott, D. 1999. H.D. and Sapphic Modernism, 1910-1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Greene, E. 2000. (ed.). Re-reading Sappho: Reception and Transmission. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ingram, C. 2000. ‘Sappho's Legacy: The Collaborative Testimony of Olga Broumas and T. Begley. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 19/1:105-20.

Johnson, M. 2007. Sappho. London: Duckworth.

Prins, Y. 1997. ‘Sappho Doubled: Michael Field,' in Prins & Shreiber (eds), 229-51.

Prins, Y. and M. Shreiber. 1997. Dwelling in Possibility: Women Poets and Critics on Poetry. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.

Rohrbach, E. 1999. ‘H.D. and Sappho. 'A Precious Inch of Palimpsest',' in E. Greene, (ed.), 184-98.

Snyder, J. McIntosh. 1997. ‘Sappho and Modern American Women Poets,' in J.M. Snyder, Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997:123-59. 

General Bibliography:

Davenport, G. 1965. Sappho: Songs and Fragments. University of Michigan Press.

Elytis, O. 2004. The Collected Poems of Odysseus Elytis, trans. Carson, Jeffrey and Sarris, Nikos. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Field, M. 1889. Long Ago. London: George Bell.

H.D. 1984. Collected Poems 1912-1944, ed. L.L. Martz, Manchester: Carcanet.

Lobel, E. and D. Page. 1995. Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sappho. Sappho, trans. O. Elytis. 1985. Athens: Ikaros.