Sapphics use a stanza of three long lines (typically 11 syllables) and a short Adonic line (5 syllables); Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho: “Like the very gods in my sight is he— / that man who wherever he takes his place / opposite you, he sits and listens close / to your sweet speaking”; A modern Sapphic: “Moonlight spills across the sleeping town— / shadows stretch like cats on window sills— / silence wraps the street in velvet down— / dreamers drift”; Another example: “Wind howls through the pines on midnight’s hill— / stars blink cold above the frozen lake— / no one hears the owl’s soft hunting call— / all is still.”