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In this poem, Rita Mae Brown embodies her imagined perception of Sappho, addressing lesbians of her time. Speaking to them \u201cthrough thousands of years,\u201d she offers words of encouragement and survival. She, as Sappho, has witnessed and understood their suffering, and yet consoles them that \u201can army of lovers shall not fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSappho\u2019s Reply\u201d was first published in Brown\u2019s 1971 poetry collection The Hand That Cradles the Rock<\/em>. By using this title to refute the maternal cliche (\u201cthe hand that rocks the cradle\u201d) and turn it into an image of power and resilience, Brown sets the tone for her entire collection.<\/p>\n Brown was an integral figure to the Feminist Poetry Movement of the \u201870s, serving as a contributor and editor for several prominent periodicals and journals including Sinister Wisdom<\/em>, Lesbian Connection<\/em>, Amazon Quarterly<\/em>, and The Furies<\/em>. She was a leader of the Redstockings, a consciousness-raising radical feminist group, yet eventually left the group due to the lack of support of lesbian issues. Similarly, she left her position with the National Organization for Women after its attempts to distance itself from and ignore lesbian feminist groups.<\/p>\n Speaking on her time with these organizations, Brown stated that she \u201cfelt like the only lesbian\u201d in America at times in the 1970s. \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t recommend it,\u201d she reflected in a 2015 Washington Post article (Burns). Yet Brown had a fulfilling career fighting for lesbian rights through poetry and politics. After leaving the Redstockings, she was a prominent figure in the Lavender Menace, a group of lesbian radical feminists that formed in 1970 in response to the exclusion of lesbians from many feminist issues. She also served as a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian commune that treated heterosexuality as a barrier to revolution (Burns).<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s struggles as a lesbian woman within the feminist movement give a deeper meaning to her interpretation of Sappho. \u201cYou who have wept in direct sunlight \/ Who have hungered in invisible chains\u201d could speak to Brown\u2019s own fight and the isolation she felt due to her sexuality.\u00a0 The poem\u2019s final line, \u201cAn army of lovers shall not fail,\u201d was adopted by gay and lesbian activists throughout the 70s and beyond\u2014and even featured on the cover of the periodical The Lesbian Tide<\/em> (Faderman 232). The \u201carmy of lovers\u201d imagery could very well have its roots in Plato\u2019s writing, specifically his Symposium,<\/em>\u00a0where the character Phaedrus employs that exact phrase to refer to the Sacred Band of Thebes, a group made up of pairs of male lovers that fought as part of the Theban army. Describing the queer people of the 1970s as \u201can army\u201d is immensely powerful, especially after following the descriptions of their pain and suffering that make up the body of the poem. It emphasizes their strength and the unity that exists between them, and using Plato\u2019s phrase harkens back to the powerful army made up of queer people in ancient history.<\/p>\n Works Cited:<\/p>\n Burns, Carole. \u201cRita Mae Brown, Awarded as Pioneer of Lesbian Literature, Scoffs at the Term.\u201d The Washington Post,<\/em> WP Company, 30 May 2015, https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/entertainment\/books\/rita-mae-brown-awarded-as-pioneer-of-lesbian-literature-scoffs-at-the-term\/2015\/05\/30\/60169a62-00a5-11e5-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html.<\/p>\n Faderman, Lillian. The Gay Revolution: The Story of The Struggle<\/em>. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2016, p. 232.<\/p>\n Moore, Honor, and Rita Mae Brown. \u201cSappho’s Reply.\u201d Poems from the Women’s Movement.<\/em>\u00a0Library of America, New York, 2009, p. 41.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this poem, Rita Mae Brown embodies her imagined perception of Sappho, addressing lesbians of her time. Speaking to them \u201cthrough thousands of years,\u201d she offers words of encouragement and survival. She, as Sappho, has witnessed and understood their suffering, … Continue reading