Bliss Carman

“ Through those thousand years poets and critics vied with one another in proclaiming her verse the one unmatched exemplar of lyric art. Such testimony, even though not a single fragment remained to us from which to judge her poetry for ourselves, might well convince us that the supremacy acknowledged by those who knew all the triumphs of the genius of old Greece was beyond the assault of any modern rival. We might safely accept the sustained judgment of a thousand years of Greece. ”

“ It is a myth which has begotten some exquisite literature, both in prose and verse, from Ovid’s famous epistle to Addison’s gracious fantasy and some impassioned and imperishable dithyrambs of Mr. Swinburne; but one need not accept the story as a fact in order to appreciate the beauties which flowered out from its coloured unreality.
The applause of contemporaries, however, is not always justified by the verdict of after-times, and does not always secure an immortality of renown. The fame of Sappho has a more stable basis. ”

“ The strong sweet loveliness of all things made, 10
And the serenity of inward joy
Beyond the storm of tears.
LIX Will none say of Sappho,
Speaking of her lovers,
And the love they gave her,—
Joy and days and beauty,
Flute-playing and roses, 5
Song and wine and laughter,—
Will none, musing, murmur,
“Yet, for all the roses,
All the flutes and lovers,
Doubt not she was lonely 10
As the sea, whose cadence
Haunts the world for ever.” ”

“ Fashioned for beauty’s fulfilment,
Mated as rhythm to reed-stop 15
Whence the wild music is moulded,
Ever appears the full measure
Of the world’s wonder.
XXXIV “Who was Atthis?” men shall ask,
When the world is old, and time
Has accomplished without haste
The strange destiny of men.
Haply in that far-off age 5
One shall find these silver songs,
With their human freight, and guess
What a lover Sappho was. ”

“ Carman has undertaken in attempting to give us in English verse those lost poems of Sappho of which fragments have survived. The task is obviously not one of translation or of paraphrasing, but of imaginative and, at the same time, interpretive construction. It is as if a sculptor of to-day were to set himself, with reverence, and trained craftsmanship, and studious familiarity with the spirit, technique, and atmosphere of his subject, to restore some statues of Polyclitus or Praxiteles of which he had but a broken arm, a foot, a knee, a finger upon which to build. ”

“ And made Sappho at thy will
Love so greatly and so much,
Ah, how comes it my frail heart 5
Is so fond of all things fair,
I can never choose between
Gorgo and Andromeda?
IX Nay, but always and forever
Like the bending yellow grain,
Or quick water in a channel,
Is the heart of man. ”

“ In recent years there has arisen a great body of literature upon the subject of Sappho, most of it the abstruse work of scholars writing for scholars. But the gist of it all, together with the minutest surviving fragment of her verse, has been made available to the general reader in English by Mr. Henry T. Wharton, in whose altogether admirable little volume we find all that is known and the most apposite of all that has been said up to the present day about
“Love’s priestess, mad with pain and joy of song,
Song’s priestess, mad with joy and pain of love.” ”

“ It is sufficient, also, to warrant our regarding the picturesque but scarcely dignified story of her vain pursuit of Phaon and her frenzied leap from the Cliff of Leucas as nothing more than a poetic myth, reminiscent, perhaps, of the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis—who is, indeed, called Phaon in some versions. The story is further discredited by the fact that we find no mention of it in Greek literature—even among those Attic comedians who would have clutched at it so eagerly and given it so gross a turn—till a date more than two hundred years after Sappho’s death. ”

“ In spite of all that is in these days being written about Sappho, it is perhaps not out of place now to inquire, in a few words, into the substance of this supremacy which towers so unassailably secure from what appear to be such shadowy foundations. ”

“ While the sun sleeps on the mountain, 10
Wild-hearted lover and loved one,
Safe in Pan’s keeping?
XXX Love shakes my soul, like a mountain wind
Falling upon the trees,
When they are swayed and whitened and bowed
As the great gusts will. ”

“ The poems of Sappho so mysteriously lost to us seem to have consisted of at least nine books of odes, together with epithalamia, epigrams, elegies, and monodies. Of the several theories which have been advanced to account for their disappearance, the most plausible seems to be that which represents them as having been burned at Byzantium in the year 380 Anno Domini, by command of Gregory Nazianzen, in order that his own poems might be studied in their stead and the morals of the people thereby improved. Of the efficacy of this act no means of judging has come down to us. ”

“ Each volume is edited by some expert scholar, and has a summary introduction dealing with the main and essential facts of the literary history of the book; at the end there are the necessary notes for a right understanding of references and textual difficulties; where necessary, there is also a carefully-compiled index. As will be at once seen from the accompanying list, much original and new work has been secured for the Series, and it will be recognised that the “King’s Classics” differentiate themselves in a very marked way from the many reprints of popular books. ”

“ THE KING’S CLASSICS UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSOR I. GOLLANCZ, LITT.D. “Right Royal Series.”—Literary World.
“We note with pleasure that competent scholars in every case have supervised this Series, which can therefore be received with confidence.”—Athenæum.
The Series of “King’s Classics,” issued under the General Editorship of Professor I. GOLLANCZ, aims at introducing to the larger reading public many noteworthy works of literature not readily accessible in cheap form, or not hitherto rendered into English. ”

“ First, we have the witness of her contemporaries. Sappho was at the height of her career about six centuries before Christ, at a period when lyric poetry was peculiarly esteemed and cultivated at the centres of Greek life. Among the Molic peoples of the Isles, in particular, it had been carried to a high pitch of perfection, and its forms had become the subject of assiduous study. Its technique was exact, complex, extremely elaborate, minutely regulated ”

“ KINGS’ LETTERS. Part I. Letters of the Kings of England, from Alfred to the Coming of the Tudors, newly edited from the originals by ROBERT STEELE, F.S.A. Frontispiece, Portrait of Henry V. Part II. From the Early Tudors, with the love-letters of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, and with frontispiece, Portrait of Anne Boleyn. Parts III. and IV., bringing the series up to modern times, will shortly be announced under the same editorship. ”

“ The tributes of Addison, Tennyson, and others, the throbbing paraphrases and ecstatic interpretations of Swinburne, are too well known to call for special comment in this brief note; but the concise summing up of her genius by Mr. Watts-Dunton in his remarkable essay on poetry is so convincing and illuminating that it seems to demand quotation here: “Never before these songs were sung, and never since did the human soul, in the grip of a fiery passion, utter a cry like hers ”

“ It should be noted, however, that while primarily rare masterpieces are included in the “King’s Classics,” modern popular classics, more especially such as have not yet been adequately or at all annotated, are not excluded from the Series.
* * * * *
NOTE.—At the date of this list, May 1, 1907, Nos. 1-35 were published.
Numbers subsequent to 35 are at press or about to go to press.
The “King’s Classics” are printed on antique laid paper, 16mo. (6 X 41⁄2 inches) , gilt tops, and are issued in the following styles and prices. Each volume has a frontispiece, usually in photogravure. ”

“ SAPPHO ONE HUNDRED LYRICS BY BLISS CARMAN 1907
“SAPPHO WHO BROKE OFF A FRAGMENT OF HER SOUL FOR US TO GUESS AT.” “SAPPHO, WITH THAT GLORIOLE OF EBON HAIR ON CALMÈD BROWS— O POET-WOMAN! NONE FORGOES THE LEAP, ATTAINING THE REPOSE.” E.B. BROWNING. INTRODUCTION THE POETRY OF SAPPHO.—If all the poets and all the lovers of poetry should be asked to name the most precious of the priceless things which time has wrung in tribute from the triumphs of human genius, the answer which would rush to every tongue would be “The Lost Poems of Sappho.” ”

“ SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE’S ESSAY ON GARDENS, together with other Carolean Essays on Gardens.
Edited, and with notes and introduction, by A. FORBES SIEVEKING, F.S.A. Frontispiece, Portrait of Sir William Temple, and five reproductions of early “garden” engravings.
5. EIKON BASILIKE: or, The King’s Book.
Edited by EDWARD ALMACK, F.S.A. Frontispiece, Portrait of King Charles I. This edition, which has been printed from an advance copy of the King’s Book seized by Cromwell’s soldiers, is the first inexpensive one for a hundred years in which the original spelling of the first edition has been preserved. ”

“ CROSLAND. Introduction by
Professor BRANDIN, University of London. Frontispiece.
22. EARLY LIVES OF CHARLEMAGNE. Translated and edited by A.J. GRANT. With frontispiece representing an early bronze figure of Charlemagne from the Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
We have here given us two “Lives” of Charlemagne by contemporary authorities—one by Eginhard and the other by the Monk of St. Gall. Very different in style, when brought together in one volume each supplies the deficiencies of the other. ”

“ Editor, ROBERT STEELE. With reproduction of DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI’S picture of “Lancelot and Guenevere at King Arthur’s tomb” as frontispiece.
26, 27. BROWNING’S “MEN AND WOMEN.” Edited with introduction and notes by W. BASIL WORSFOLD, M.A. Two volumes, each with portrait of Browning as frontispiece.
In two volumes.
28. POE’S POEMS. Editor, EDWARD HUTTON. Frontispiece, Poe’s cottage.
34. SAPPHO: One Hundred Lyrics By BLISS CARMAN, With frontispiece after a Greek gem.
To be continued.
NOTE.—At the date of this list, May 1, 1907, Nos. 1-35 were published. ”