Lyric Poem · Love
One Girl (A Combination from Sappho)
by Sappho · translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
A-top on the topmost twig, — which the pluckers forgot, somehow, —
Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now.
Like the wild hyacinth flower which on the hills is found,
Which the passing feet of the shepherds for ever tear and wound,
Until the purple blossom is trodden in the ground.
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“One Girl (A Combination from Sappho)” by Sappho — quilloak.com/poems/sappho-one-girl
Quick facts
- Poem
- One Girl (A Combination from Sappho)
- Poet
- Sappho
- Length
- 6 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Love, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 6 lines · 2 tercets
- Line length
- Lines run 13-16 syllables (median 15). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
The translation is treated as a separate work and reviewed from the cited historical edition.
- Author record
- Sapphoc. 630–570 BC
- Source record
- Cited historical translationOne Girl (A Combination from Sappho); Poems, 1870
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Poems, 1870
- Translation
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 6c68205c118c5fcc…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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