Sappho of Lesbos and Audre Lorde

Sappho of Lesbos and Audre Lorde

How is Sappho of Lesbos different from and similar to the contemporary poet, Audre Lorde? How are they similar? These two brilliant poets were woman who had great adoration towards women. Their adoration for women was so great that it was greatly shown in their works. Even though Sappho and Lorde are similar in their sexual orientation they are different in their expression of women in their poems. Sappho speaks about women in a more intimate and romantic way, while Lorde speaks about women in a way that expresses her passion for women’s rights. Lorde used her gift of writing poetry to speak about how she felt about women in society.

In the poem “Like the very gods in my sight is he” I found evidence of Sappho’s nonsexual, but passionate desire for a woman. Sappho says, “Like the very gods in my sight is he who sits where he can look in your eyes” (532). This shows Sappho’s extreme desire to just look in another woman’s eyes. Sappho says nothing sexual, only that she wants to look into the woman’s eyes. This is an example of how Sappho expresses her lesbianism in a more romantic way. This was done at a time where it was extremely usually for a woman to have feelings for a woman and later, marry and have children. Today we would call that an outrageous society that is full of sin, due to our European culture. There are other’s who would have called that conforming to societies expectations. And of course there are some individuals who would love that type of lifestyle.

Audre Lorde was a woman who believed that a woman should not be subject to the ways and customs of society. She felt that society was forcing women to be put into a certain way of life (Stetson 230). Lorde decided that she was not going to fit into societies given roles. This is proven when she openly stated that, she was a mother and still lived her later life publicly as a lesbian (Harper 117). Her rebellious lifestyle and way of thinking did not stop her from writing about society’s issues and day-to-day struggles. She would write about things like rape, child abuse, domestic abuse, etc. (Stetson 229). As she wrote about these things she would focus on the life of a woman and/or young girl. Her passion and love for women was her drive to stop the mistreatment