Sappho

Aphrodite may have splendid altars in Cyprus and Paphos, but Sappho asks the sea-born goddess to look toward a small, lonely valley by the shore. What might a mortal’s longing ask of an immortal?

In Bliss Carman’s 1904 collection, the imagined voice of Sappho moves through the gardens, courtyards and twilight of Lesbos, among lovers, companions and the old Greek gods. Love brings its own strange weather: a beloved’s footstep can brighten the dusk, while absence leaves the speaker alone beneath a vanished moon. These lyrics draw on fragments of Sappho’s lost poems, making desire—tender, joyful and often aching—their guiding force. When even Aphrodite cannot quiet the heart, what can?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.