The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest lived of the Classical lyric strophes in the West".
A papyrus manuscript preserving Sappho's "Fragment 5", a poem written in Sapphic stanzas
Alcaeus and Sappho, the two great poets of Lesbos. Attic red-figure calathus, c. 470 BCE
Algernon Charles Swinburne, around the time he published "Sapphics"
Alcaeus of Mytilene was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds.
Alcaeus and Sappho, Attic red-figure calathus, c. 470 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2416)
Pittacus
Sappho and Alcaeus by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. The Walters Art Museum.
A 2nd century AD papyrus of Alcaeus, one of the many such fragments that have contributed to our greatly improved knowledge of Alcaeus' poetry during the 20th century (P.Berol. inv. 9810 = fr. 137 L.–P.).