Sapphic Stanza
Sapphic Stanza
one of the most widely used strophes of classical prosody. The sapphic stanza appears in the works of the Greek poet Sappho. It was established as a form in Latin poetry by Horace. A sapphic stanza consists of three 11-syllable sapphic verses (—U—Ū—U U—U—Ū), followed by a five-syllable adonic verse (—U U—Ū). The following stanza by N. A. Radishchev is an example of a tonic rendering of a sapphic stanza:
Ty klialásia vérnoiu byt’ vovéki,
Mne bogíniu nóshchi dalá porúkoi;
Séver khládnyi dúnul odín raz krépche—
Schást’e ischézlo.