V.  FRAGMENTS FROM SAPPHO

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XXXIIIQuoted by Hephaestion, about 150 A. D., as an example of meter. The verse stood at the beginning of the first ode of the second book of Sappho’s poems.

I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago.

I loved thee, — hark, one tenderer note than
      all —
139 Atthis, of old time, once — one low long fall,
Sighing — one long low lovely loveless call,
Dying — one pause in song so flamelike fast —
Atthis, long since in old time overpast —
One soft first pause and last.
One, — then the old rage of rapture’s
      rain
Storms all the music-maddened night again.

SWINBURNE, Songs of the Springtides.