Traditionally, a lyre accompanied the lyric poem. Eventually, lyrics moved from being merely words accompanied by music to lyrical language with specific prosodic and formulaic style preferences that begin to come into play within the Hellenistic and Roman periods. These alterations in verse were not the only means by which poetry began to develop; the content of lyrics had also began to modify from the epic, mythological, and legendary proponents to the pastoral and testimonial verse. Whereas the epic took place in public, masculine events, notably war, the lyric took place in private, domestic situations that were predominantly feminine in nature. The lyrics of ancient Greek poet Sappho, whose work is classified within the Archaic and Classical periods, delve into soft and intimate contexts that are driven "by a human voice, a woman's voice speaking to the concerns of her daily life, a solitary daring to posit the notion that ordinary experience of human love is imbued with significance as worthy of attention as all the martial splendors of Homerica" (Santos 20). This new medium of candid communication allowed for the widespread evolution of lyric poetry as an "effective medium for thinking" (Santos 26). Sherod Santos, the editor of the anthology Greek Lyric Poetry is an award-winning poet and Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia who believes that "we live in a time where the lyric is often discounted for itsasocial and narcissistic limits" (26). Yet, the freedom poets now have within these confines is awe striking and can be attributed to their classical predecessors.
"Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;milk and honey are under your tongue./The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride. You are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates/ with choice fruits/Beloved/Awake, north wind,and come, south wind!/ Blow on my garden,/that its fragrance may be spread abroad.
