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Lover's Leap single work   poetry   "Effusions. As over the softer edge"
  • Author:agent John Kinsella http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/kinsella-john
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 Lover's Leap
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Notes

  • Epigraph: There was a promontory in Arcarnania called Leucate, on the top of which was a little temple dedicated to Apollo. In this temple it was usual for despairing lovers to make their vows in secret, and afterwards to fling to fling themselves from the top of the precipice into the sea, where they were sometimes taken up alive. This place was therefore called the Lover's Leap: and whether or no the fright they had been in, or the resolution that could push them to so dreadful a remedy, or the bruises which they often received in their fall, banished all the tender sentiments of love, and gave their spirits another turn; those who had taken this leap were observed never to relapse into that passion. Sappho tried the cure, but perished in the experiment. - 'C', from Spectator, No. 223, Thursday, November 15, 1711
  • Epigraph: Lifting off from the cliffs of Leukas, once again am I tumbling into the gray seas, drunk with desire. - Anacreon (2nd half of the 6th C.), Fragment 376 (trans. John Porter)

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Last amended 7 May 2008 12:26:23
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