Sappho’s “To an Army Wife, in Sardis” stresses how powerful love can be. For some, cavalry or infantry corps, or the oars of the fleet are the finest sights, but the author argues that whatever one loves, is the most beautiful sight of all. Sappho presented Helen as an example of how a man’s views and priorities (that is, Paris’) can change all because of love. The poem mainly talks about the persona’s longing to Anactoria, and the love for her that goes beyond limits.
“On the day of death, when my bier is on the move” by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (under Arabic and Persian poetry) talks about the paradox of death. The persona is trying to say that there is still life after death – a life that is far more ideal than the life that we have in this physical world. The persona believes that the grave is just a shroud over the place of eternal bliss, and that though a tomb seems to be a prison, it is actually a freedom of the soul. In author’s own words, “What seed ever went down to into the earth which did not grow? What bucket of water ever went down and came out not full?” Truly, the author presented statements in the poem that seem contrary to common sense yet may perhaps be true.
Bertran de Born’s “I love the joyful time of Easter” (of Provençal poetry) talks mainly about war and violence. The persona in the poem feels great pleasure when he sees armed knights and horses. He attains great joy from violence; it pleases him when the skirmishers make people run away, when castles are seized, etc. De Born also presented a stern perception that a man is better dead, than alive yet beaten. He described chaotic scenes wherein neighing unfastened horse wander over the wounded and the dead, and of little and great men alike fall in the flanks of corpses, yet seemed to derive pleasure from these. The author here, simply put, portrays violence like an ordinary subject matter, and at the end of the poem diverges from war to love.
Analyzing the themes, we can observe that these three poems exhibit universal human emotions, yet did a little twist. Yes, Sappho’s “To an Army Wife, in Sardis” talks about love – a universal emotion, yet the poem is about her attraction to a woman (Anactoria). Sappho’s depiction of passionate love therefore, is not the typical heterosexual love, but a homosexual one, particularly woman-to-woman love. This theme may have created a shock in her time, but now, such theme is already accepted by modern literature readers.
On the other hand, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s “On the day of death, when my bier is on the move” also did a little twist on our notion of death – a very general theme. For most of us, it may mean end of life and of everything. Yet the author presented the persona having no pain at leaving this physical world. Yes, the idea of a paradise after death is a Utopist thought, but the author presented it in a way that is swaying to the readers. Personally, I see this work as being influences by the dominant philosophy Sufism, in which everything has a meaning that is in relation with God. I believe that the idea of a “god” has been presented indirectly in the poem, but is reflected in the author’s notion of an after-life, of a paradise, and in his own words, of “union and encounter”.
Provençal poetry, on the other hand, is primarily devoted to the subject of love, hence it is also called as courtly love poetry. However, Bertran de Born’s “I love the joyful time of Easter” is shockingly cruel for it talks about war and violence. Personally, I see this as somewhat similar to a known saying that man is a beast for the poem seems to portray human nature and his inclination to liking violence. The author depicts the violence of men versus men, which is but a universal scenario. What is even more shocking is that at the end of the poem, the theme abruptly changes into love – still the identity of Provençal poems.
