Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SAP'PHIC, a. [saf'ic.]

Pertaining to Sappho, a Grecian poetess; as, Sapphic odes; Sapphiv verse. The Sapphic verse consists of eleven syllables in five feet, of which the first, fourth and fifth are trochees, the second a spondee, and the third a dactyl, in the first three lines of each stanza, with a fourth consisting only of a dactyl and a spondee.