(1) Writing about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh in 1978, Lorna Sage drew attention to the "slump" in its reputation after the success it had first enjoyed after its 1856 publication: at first, she argued, it seemed to have successfully liberated the epic form from a male monopoly; subsequently, though, a ringletted Barrett Browning morphed into "almost the archetype of the powerless, fey poetess".
Sapphic
Definition:
(a.) Of or pertaining to Sappho, the Grecian poetess; as, Sapphic odes; Sapphic verse.
(a.) Belonging to, or in the manner of, Sappho; -- said of a certain kind of verse reputed to have been invented by Sappho, consisting of five feet, of which the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second is a spondee, and the third a dactyl.
(n.) A Sapphic verse.
Example Sentences:
(1) Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB) 1997-2003 Buffy's helper who discovered her witch powers and Sapphic nature in the course of the series.
(2) Lesbians on TV CJ Lamb (Amanda Donohoe), LA Law (NBC) 1991 First Sapphic kiss on primetime TV, between CJ and Abby (Michele Greene).
(3) In one of the emblematic strands of the novel, the orderly Joseph Grand is looking throughout for the right words to perfect his vision of a woman rider out in the Bois de Boulogne: this recurrent sentence works like the little phrase of Vinteuil, hinting at a kind of Proustian Sapphic splendour in the distant capital of moral adventure and sexual consumption; the "svelte Amazon" embodies the preposterous hopes and dreams of an everyman in exile.
(4) So it was hardly surprising when Shakira and Rihanna's video for new single Can't Remember to Forget You was made complete with some saucy images of Sapphic seduction.
(5) Though her subsequent releases are hardly as Sapphic as her debut single Do It Like A Dude, she's never hidden her bisexuality.