A major concept that Carson acknowledges is the duality of
love. One struck by love experiences pleasure and pain simultaneously,
bitterness and sweet, love and hate. Fragments 24 of Sappho and 35-36 of Archilochus
reflect this concept.
In Sappho’s 24th fragment, she writes,
“Once again Love
drives me on, that loosener of limbs,
Bittersweet creature against
which nothing can be done
. . . . . . . . . .
But to you, Atthis,
the thought of me has grown
Hateful, and you fly
off to Andromeda.”
Three times in this excerpt, the reader experiences the
duality of love. Love loosens the limbs, yet restricts the recipient from
action. Furthermore, this ‘bittersweet creature’ subjects those affected by it
to experience to both the bitterness and sweetness of it. Lastly, the notion of
love and hate is present in the last lines, as Atthis, loved by Sappho,
withdraws in her hatred. For one cannot love without hate.
Archilochus’s fragments 35-36 also display a sense of
duality. It states,
"For such was the passion of love that coiled itself beneath my heart
and poured thick mist across my eyes,
robbing me of my tender senses.
In wretchedness I lie here, gripped by longing,
lifeless, with bitter pain by the gods' will
pierced through the bones."
Through the realization of love, the author experiences loss of the senses, a complete contradiction to the keenness of the love he experiences. Furthermore, while such passion is experienced in fragment 35, it quickly turns to a bitter pain in fragment 36, piercing the author by the bones.
Carson calls to question, the chronology of bittersweet in her paper, whether or not their is meant to be an order that is experienced in Sappho's writing. One can question such things in other dualities. What is experienced first? Pleasure or pain? Love or hate? Sight or its absence. One would hope to believe the more positive of the two experiences.
Good analysis here, though I think you should see this as the framework for a more thorough treatment in a paper. What quotes from Carson would you use, and how would you paraphrase them to set up an analysis of the poetry? Further, when you turn to the poetry, how will you see the extant work as a whole? I see that you made some links between the contradictions in love and the befuddlement of perception, and there would be a good spot to make more explicit. Looking especially at the last paragraph, I see a lot of good threads knotted up, which will be productive to parse out more precisely.
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