Fragment 31

“Catullus 51” by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BC)

Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus lived in ancient Rome from 84-54 BCE. He was an admirer of Sappho, and he wrote his own adaptation of “Fragment 31” in Latin. Many translations of Sappho’s “Fragment 31” exist, but “Catullus 51” may be the earliest. The meter of the poem is Sapphic, and its situation and themes are same as the ones that appear in “Fragment 31,” but Catullus addresses his muse, Lesbia; as well, Catullus’s speaker departs from Sappho’s speaker’s intense emotional experience by linking their difficult emotions to the ruination of rulers and their cities.

“Sapphics” by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1924)

Victorian English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne followed the footsteps of Catullus by writing his own series of Sapphics, which is the literary term denoting the form of poetry favored by Sappho herself. Sapphics consist of quatrains made up of three long lines followed by a single brief line, and the 20 quatrains of Swinburne’s “Sapphics” all capture his vision of Sappho as she lived in ancient Greece.

“Jealousy” by Rupert Brooke (1991)

The English poet Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) is most famous for his World War I poetry and his identification with the Georgian poets.