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SAPPHO IN LEUCADIA
Scene.—The white-rocked promontory of Leucate, on the Island of Leucadia, overlooking the Ionian Sea. High on the cliff, in the background, towers the Leucadian Temple to Apollo, white and gold in the waning sunlight. Sappho, of Lesbos, stands on the brink of the cliff, and at her feet kneels Phaon, of Mitylene. As they gaze seaward a group of young shepherds pass from the Temple, and a voice in the distance is heard singing.
Sappho
Where rests your sail that faced so many winds?—
(O Aphrodite, help me in this hour!)
Phaon
There white against the blue of yonder bay.
Sappho
It seems a little thing to creep so far
From home and Asian shores—a little thing!
Phaon
Bird-throated child of Lesbos—
Sappho (musingly)
Bird-throated child of Lesbos— Yet I too
Am frail, and I have fared on troubled seas!
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