I found a fragment of Sappho’s poetry* which references the Graces, and since the Graces figure in Nancy’s discussion of the Visitation, I couldn’t resist adding the fragment to my project.  The mention of the rose metaphor intrigued me – and even though it is a superficial connection  –  I’ve used the image, appropriating Sappho’s words, and combining the phrase with a second fragment, “I would not think to touch the sky…”  Anne Carson’s collection of Sappho’s poetry is written with the original Greek and the English translation side by side and often, there is only a single phrase or sentence on a page, leaving the rest of the page an open space, inviting  an image or a drawing.

* Carson, Anne, translator and editor. If Not, Winter: fragments of Sappho. Vintage, N.Y. 2003.

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