Ode : The ‘Ode to Aphrodite’ is written in the meter most commonly used by Sappho (and generally called ‘Sapphics’ after her), formed from a regular pattern of long and short syllables for the first three lines, followed by a shorter fourth line. This type of patterning still resonates with rhythmic felicity today, and in English, though poetry in English generally works better using stressed and unstressed syllables rather than long and short. The Sapphic pattern is as follows :
l s l x l s s l s l l
l s l x l s s l s l l
l s l x l s s l s l l
l s s l l
where ‘l’ indicates a long syllable, ‘s’ a short syllable, and ‘x’ one that can be either long or short.

Aphrodite was grafted into the pantheon of the Greek gods as the daughter of Zeus by Dione, though Hesiod has her born from the foam which surrounded the severed genitals of Uranus, when they were cast upon the waters after his ill-fated tussle with his son, the sickle wielding Cronos. The two strands of myth seem to have co-existed.

Wings of birds : the birds associated with Aphrodite were the dove, the swan and the sparrow. The sparrow is probably referred to here by Sappho, but the contemporary connotations of the bird do not let the poetry work. Some further ideas about the love symbolism of the sparrow can be followed up in the poetry of Catullus (verses II and III), who was able to draw on some 9 volumes of poetry by Sappho for inspiration.