Isabella Ng, Period 1, 10/28/21

Villanelle for Persephone

There are spring girls weeping in your red hands,

In Narcissus fields, in soul-soaked seas--

Old enough to learn, too young to understand. 

A daughter swallowed into untamed lands,

Where he waits in the silence to seize--

There are spring girls weeping in your red hands. 

An innocence smeared by violent hands,

The guilty taste of a pomegranate seed--

Old enough to learn, too young to understand. 

Even the earth aches under burning lands, 

A mother’s ragged grief, her desperate plea-- 

There are spring girls weeping in your red hands.

Her missing voice echoes winter’s span,

Just a few more months until she’s free--

Old enough to learn, too young to understand. 

Coerced to endure, to brave, to withstand,

We have no choice but to let the blood be. 

There are spring girls weeping in your red hands--

Old enough to learn, too young to understand. 

(The story of Demeter and Persephone presents an interesting question-- who is truly in the wrong? Is Demeter at fault for being an overbearing mother, or is Hades to blame for his actions? In this villanelle, I take Demeter's side and analyze the inherent violence in Persephone and Hades's love story and how it might've affected Persephone, who suddenly had to grow up very quickly.)

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