Hey, Mark. I remember that one of yours, and I'd been thinking how I associate Mary (and Rick) with sapphics.
This poem in sapphics by Thomas Hardy is the first piece in his first collection,
Wessex Poems.
The Temporary the All
Change and chancefulness in my flowering youthtime,
Set me sun by sun near to one unchosen;
Wrought us fellowlike, and despite divergence,
xxxxxFused us in friendship.
“Cherish him can I while the true one forthcome—
Come the rich fulfiller of my prevision;
Life is roomy yet, and the odds unbounded.”
xxxxxSo self-communed I.
’Thwart my wistful way did a damsel saunter,
Fair, albeit unformed to be all-eclipsing;
“Maiden meet,” held I, “till arise my forefelt
xxxxxWonder of women.”
Long a visioned hermitage deep desiring,
Tenements uncouth I was fain to house in;
“Let such lodging be for a breath-while,” thought I,
xxxxx“Soon a more seemly.
“Then high handiwork will I make my life-deed,
Truth and Light outshow; but the ripe time pending,
Intermissive aim at the thing sufficeth."
xxxxxThus I . . . But lo, me!
Mistress, friend, place, aims to be bettered straightway,
Bettered not has Fate or my hand’s achieving;
Sole the showance those of my onward earth-track—
xxxxxNever transcended!
—Thomas Hardy
I first tried out sapphics in a workshop I took with Alicia Stallings. Her phrase "strawberry pancakes" for remembering the rhythm of the adonic has stuck with me.
I've published a couple of poems in the meter,
the one online at Alabama Literary Review ("The Distance") is also in my latest collection
The Moon on Elba (Wiseblood Books, 2023).