The first two lines of the poem preface this plea for help with praise for the goddess, emphasizing her immorality and lineage. Sappho’s “Fragment 1” uses apostrophe, an impassioned poetic address, to call out to the goddess Aphrodite for aid. In the final stanza, Sappho leaves this memory and returns to the present, where she again asks Aphrodite to come to her and bring her her heart’s desires. Nevertheless, she reassured Sappho that her prayer would be answered, and that the object of her affection would love her in return. The goddess interspersed her questions with the refrain “now again,” reminding Sappho that she had repeatedly been plagued by the trials of love-drama she has passed on to the goddess. Last time, she recalls, the goddess descended in a chariot drawn by birds, and, smiling, asked Sappho what happened to make her so distressed, why she was calling out for help, what she wanted Aphrodite to do, and who Sappho desired. She asks Aphrodite to instead aid her as she has in the past.

The poem begins with Sappho praising the goddess before begging her not to break her heart by letting her beloved continue to evade her.

“Fragment 1” is an extended address from Sappho to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

Sappho the poems and fragments