Cicada
Out of all the temperate seasons that we have year round, summer is the warmest. It falls between spring and fall. The days are the longest, meaning we see the sunlight more in the summer then we do in the winter (Robert). With summer, we get many different insects that were hiding away in the winter because it is so cold, and just like humans, whom usually don’t like the cold, neither do cicadas. The insect we see, or hear most in the summer is the cicada. With summer comes the cicada’s, their noise comforts us, and brings summer to life. Through out the summer nights, cicadas swarm around us with there loud and almost relaxing sound. When we get summer, we get the not so peaceful but nice little insect with it. I think that the theme in this poem that Sappho is trying to portray is that cicada’s are just like people in the summertime, loving life and coming out to have a good time.
In line 1 Sappho opens with, “flaming summer”, which sends great imagery into the reader’s brain. It takes the individual who is reading the poem back to a really hot summers day that the reader has experienced. When it is so hot outside that all we want to do is jump into a big pool, or drink an ice-cold cup of water, or even eat a n ice cold popsicle. It makes the human being come out of our shells. Summer is the time of year where we open up and feel great happiness. Just like the cicada which literally comes out of its shell, or even when the cicada is making noise, we can tell it is happy. Its loud and cheerful, letting other little critters know that it is there.
In the middle of the poem, Sappho is trying to engage the reader into the moment of summer time. The season where we feel pure happiness and joy. It is shown tha...
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...orching days that I had dreaded being outside in, where all I wanted was the air conditioner and some ice water. It takes a great poet to show such great imagery and to be able to take the reader back. She shows us that no only humans enjoy the summertime, but the littlest things that we don’t think about on a day-to-day basis feel the same way. Cicada’s are just like humans in that they enjoy the summer, and they show their happiness through verbal or non-verbal communication. Sappho is trying to portray that summertime is the best time of the year, and she does a great job of making the reader believe her.
^ Ball, Sir Robert S (1900). Elements of Astronomy. London: The MacMillan
Company. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-4400-5323-8.
Sappho. “Cicadia.” Sweetbitter Love: poems of Sappho Trans Willis
Barnstone. Boston: Shambola Press, Inc, 2006.
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