Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/33

Rh cence, of hope, and of friendship have not had accorded to them the importance to which they are entitled.

Sappho has had her enthusiastic admirers amongst writers in almost all important languages, and those who have written in English have been in the forefront of this enthusiasm.

Among them all, John Addington Symonds, the translator of many of her poems, embodies his opinion in a few lines, well worth quoting. He says: “Of all the poets of the world, of all the illustrious artists of all literatures, Sappho is the one whose every word has a peculiar and unmistakable perfume, a seal of absolute perfection and illimitable grace.” There is nothing to add to such words of concentrated praise, even if we possibly lag a little behind their writer in our own enthusiasm.