Sappho Discovers her Passion

This sonnet is very defiant of a typical sonnet, as it initially comes of as deep seeded love that can initiate passion just by looks, then it has a gruesome twist where we as readers actually find out that love no longer exist between the author and Phaon. Over the coarse of the sonnet the author vividly describes her love and how it makes her feel, the she takes the reader down a brief tunnel of pain as she reaches the epiphany that love no longer dwells within the barracks of her heart, as her lover, Phaon, has moved on. After reading this sonnet, the blazons were noticeable almost immediately. The "beauteous eyes of Phaon's" are referenced in the very first line of the poem. Just at the sight of his eyes disorients the author instantly. The passion is so strong that her thoughts are all discombobulated and thrown. Sappho's feelings for Phaon are so strong that at the time nothing else in life matters to her, she automatically loses all control, even her body response to the stimuli of this love as she says, "my chilled breast in throbbing tumults rise". This poem extensively uses blazons to convey the passion. I feel like this is great aspect to get the reader involved. Blazons give readers a live sense of what is going on, and they allow the reader to try to imagine the feelings for themselves. It transforms this sonnet from a bland love lost, to a colorful love story that ends in a heart break. Sappho's blazons literally jump off the page because of how well they describe the intensity of love and desire. Following the blazons, is and abrupt volta. This was such a dramatic volta that the author actually says, "Mute". It is here where the author realizes that all those feelings of love are for naught, because her lover is no longer hers. She goes on to say, "my faltering lips betray, That stung by hopeless passion". She realizes that the love is gone and will never be regain, however that does not stop her passionate feelings. This is a complete 360 because in the beginning of the poem she describes being head-over- heels for this guy Phaon, and now she tells how he is gone. The poem ends with the author having slightly slipped into a state of self pity and depression as she goes on to say, "let pity waft my spirit to the blessed".