The Sapphic stanza is the only stanzaic form adapted from Greek and Latin poetry to be used widely in Polish literature.
Nieszczęściu kwoli a swojej żałości, Która mię prawie przejmuje do kości, Lutnią i wdzięczny rym porzucić muszę, Ledwe nie duszę.
[3] Since my misfortunes and my daily sorrow Pervade my body, pricking to the marrow, My lute lies silent, my fair rhymes forsaken— My soul, too, shaken.
[4] When the God in the beginning created Heaven and earth, the sea and all living beings, He divided chaos into the four elements With his divine decision.
Lenart Gnoiński used Sapphic stanzas in the tenth poem of a sequence named Łzy smutne (Sorrowful Tears).
[6] Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, whose poetry (influenced strongly by Giambattista Marino) is most typical for Baroque, used Sappho's stanza in Do lutnie (To a Lute) from Lutnia (The Lute) and in Wiejski żywot (Life in a Village from the book Kanikuła, albo psia gwiazda (Canicula or dog star).
[7] He is the author of the poem Sławna wiktoryja nad Turkami (The Famous Victory over the Turks), which is an example of the use of the Sapphic stanza in an epic function.
[9] This work, which can be compared to The Revelation of St. John or Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, was extremely popular and appeared in eighteen editions from 1670 to 1886.
He used the form among others in the poem Pieśń doroczna na dzień ocalenia życia i zdrowia J. K. Mości (Annual song for the day of rescuing life and health of His Majesty, the King).
On Providence) and in the poem Pieśń do świętych Polaków, patronów Polski (Hymn to the holy Poles, patrons of Poland).
[13] Another example of Sapphic stanza is a hymn included in Gorzkie żale (Bitter Lamentations), a typically Polish Catholic devotion, sung in churches on Sundays during Lent, and familiar to many Poles.
Felicjan Faleński attempted a Polish Sapphic stanza more closely resembling the Greek and Latin models, and in translating Horace's poetry used a hendecasyllable with the caesura after the fourth, not the fifth syllable.
[24] Much later Kochanowski's proposal was used by Cyprian Kamil Norwid in his famous poem Coś ty Atenom zrobił, Sokratesie?
Dla mnie na zachodzie Rozlałeś tęczę blasków promienistą, Przede mną gasisz w lazurowej wodzie Gwiazdę ognistą, Choć mi tak niebo ty złocisz i morze, Smutno mi Boże!
Thou hast before me Spread a bright rainbow in the western skies, But thou hast quenched in darkness cold and stormy The brighter stars that rise; Clear grows the heaven ’neath thy transforming rod: Still I am sad, O God!
[28] It is also possible that Słowacki was inspired by the well-known Burns stanza which also consists of four longer lines (iambic tetrameters) and two shorter (iambic dimeters): But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!
Once again she suggested Sappho's stanzaic pattern in the poem "Posłom wielkopolskim" ("To the deputies from the Greater Poland"), which goes 11a/11b/11a/5b/11c/11c; she repeated this scheme in "Improwizacja" ("Improvisation") and in "Ave, Patria".
Another form used by Konopnicka suggestive of the Sapphic stanza is a quatrain composed of three hendecasyllabic lines and one trisyllable,[29] used in "Kto krzywdę płodzi" ("Who begets harm").
Another form developed by Konopnicka is the five-line strophe including decasyllabic lines and masculine rhymes: 10m/5f/10m/10m/5f, used in "Którzy idziemy" ("We that are going").
Adam Asnyk wrote an epigram (Italian strambotto) "Ironia" ("Irony") in the form of ottava rima with the last line being a pentasyllable.