'Demeter and Persephone' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
AI and Tech Aggregator
Download Mp3s Free
Tears of the Kingdom Roleplay
Best Free University Courses Online
TOTK Roleplay
Faint as a climate-changing bird that flies
All night across the darkness, and at dawn
Falls on the threshold of her native land,
And can no more, thou camest, O my child,
Led upward by the God of ghosts and dreams,
Who laid thee at Eleusis, dazed and dumb,
With passing thro' at once from state to state,
Until I brought thee hither, that the day,
When here thy hands let fall the gather'd flower,
Might break thro' clouded memories once again
On thy lost self. A sudden nightingale
Saw thee, and flash'd into a frolic of song
And welcome; and a gleam as of the moon,
When first she peers along the tremulous deep,
Fled wavering o'er thy face, and chased away
That shadow of a likeness to the king
Of shadows, thy dark mate. Persephone!
Queen of the dead no more -- my child! Thine eyes
Again were human-godlike, and the Sun
Burst from a swimming fleece of winter gray,
And robed thee in his day from head to feet --
"Mother!" and I was folded in thine arms.
Child, those imperial, disimpassion'd eyes
Awed even me at first, thy mother -- eyes
That oft had seen the serpent-wanded power
Draw downward into Hades with his drift
Of fickering spectres, lighted from below
By the red race of fiery Phlegethon;
But when before have Gods or men beheld
The Life that had descended re-arise,
And lighted from above him by the Sun?
So mighty was the mother's childless cry,
A cry that ran thro' Hades, Earth, and Heaven!
So in this pleasant vale we stand again,
The field of Enna, now once more ablaze
With flowers that brighten as thy footstep falls,
All flowers -- but for one black blur of earth
Left by that closing chasm, thro' which the car
Of dark Aidoneus rising rapt thee hence.
And here, my child, tho' folded in thine arms,
I feel the deathless heart of motherhood
Within me shudder, lest the naked glebe
Should yawn once more into the gulf, and thence
The shrilly whinnyings of the team of Hell,
Ascending, pierce the glad and songful air,
And all at once their arch'd necks, midnight-maned,
Jet upward thro' the mid-day blossom. No!
For, see, thy foot has touch'd it; all the space
Of blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh,
And breaks into the crocus-purple hour
That saw thee vanish.
Child, when thou wert gone,
I envied human wives, and nested birds,
Yea, the cubb'd lioness; went in search of thee
Thro' many a palace, many a cot, and gave
Thy breast to ailing infants in the night,
And set the mother waking in amaze
To find her sick one whole; and forth again
Among the wail of midnight winds, and cried,
"Where is my loved one? Wherefore do ye wail?"
And out from all the night an answer shrill'd,
"We know not, and we know not why we wail."
I climb'd on all the cliffs of all the seas,
And ask'd the waves that moan about the world
"Where? do ye make your moaning for my child?"
And round from all the world the voices came
"We know not, and we know not why we moan."
"Where?" and I stared from every eagle-peak,
I thridded the black heart of all the woods,
I peer'd thro' tomb and cave, and in the storms
Of Autumn swept across the city, and heard
The murmur of their temples chanting me,
Me, me, the desolate Mother! "Where"? -- and turn'd,
And fled by many a waste, forlorn of man,
And grieved for man thro' all my grief for thee, --
The jungle rooted in his shatter'd hearth,
The serpent coil'd about his broken shaft,
The scorpion crawling over naked skulls; --
I saw the tiger in the ruin'd fane
Spring from his fallen God, but trace of thee
I saw not; and far on, and, following out
A league of labyrinthine darkness, came
On three gray heads beneath a gleaming rift.
"Where"? and I heard one voice from all the three
"We know not, for we spin the lives of men,
And not of Gods, and know not why we spin!
There is a Fate beyond us." Nothing knew.
Last as the likeness of a dying man,
Without his knowledge, from him flits to warn
A far-off friendship that he comes no more,
So he, the God of dreams, who heard my cry,
Drew from thyself the likeness of thyself
Without thy knowledge, and thy shadow past
Before me, crying "The Bright one in the highest
Is brother of the Dark one in the lowest,
And Bright and Dark have sworn that I, the child
Of thee, the great Earth-Mother, thee, the Power
That lifts her buried life from loom to bloom,
Should be for ever and for evermore
The Bride of Darkness."
So the Shadow wail'd.
Then I, Earth-Goddess, cursed the Gods of Heaven.
I would not mingle with their feasts; to me
Their nectar smack'd of hemlock on the lips,
Their rich ambrosia tasted aconite.
The man, that only lives and loves an hour,
Seem'd nobler than their hard Eternities.
My quick tears kill'd the flower, my ravings hush'd
The bird, and lost in utter grief I fail'd
To send my life thro' olive-yard and vine
And golden grain, my gift to helpless man.
Rain-rotten died the wheat, the barley-spears
Vere hollow-husk'd, the leaf fell, and the sun,
Pale at my grief, drew down before his time
Sickening, and tna kept her winter snow.
Then He, the brother of this Darkness, He
Who still is highest, glancing from his height
On earth a fruitless fallow, when he miss'd
The wonted steam of sacrifice, the praise
And prayer of men, decreed that thou should'st dwell
For nine white moons of each whole year with me,
Three dark ones in the shadow with thy King.
Once more the reaper in the gleam of dawn
Will see me by the landmark far away,
Blessing his field, or seated in the dusk
Of even, by the lonely threshing-floor,
Rejoicing in the harvest and the grange.
Yet I, Earth-Goddess, am but ill-content
With them, who still are highest. Those gray heads,
What meant they by their "Fate beyond the Fates"
But younger kindlier Gods to bear us down,
As we bore down the Gods before us? Gods,
To quench, not hurl the thunderbolt, to stay,
Not spread the plague, the famine; Gods indeed,
To send the noon into the night and break
The sunless halls of Hades into Heaven?
Till thy dark lord accept and love the Sun,
And all the Shadow die into the Light,
When thou shalt dwell the whole bright year with me,
And souls of men, who grew beyond their race,
And made themselves as Gods against the fear
Of Death and Hell; and thou that hast from men,
As Queen of Death, that worship which is Fear,
Henceforth, as having risen from out the dead,
Shalt ever send thy life along with mine
From buried grain thro' springing blade, and bless
Their garner'd Autumn also, reap with me,
Earth-mother, in the harvest hymns of Earth
The worship which is Love, and see no more
The Stone, the Wheel, the dimly-glimmering lawns
Of that Elysium, all the hateful fires
Of torment, and the shadowy warrior glide
Along the silent field of Asphodel.
Editor 1 Interpretation
Demeter and Persephone: A Masterpiece of Imagery and Emotion
Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era, known for his powerful imagery and his ability to capture deep emotions in his work. One of his most famous poems is "Demeter and Persephone," a retelling of the Greek myth of the goddess of agriculture and her daughter who is abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. In this essay, we will explore how Tennyson's poem uses language, imagery, and symbolism to convey the themes of loss, grief, and the cycle of life and death.
Setting the Scene: The Story of Demeter and Persephone
Before we dive into the poem itself, let's briefly review the myth of Demeter and Persephone. According to Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of agriculture and fertility, responsible for the growth of crops and the abundance of the earth. Her daughter, Persephone, was a beautiful young woman who was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Demeter was devastated by her daughter's disappearance and searched the earth for her, neglecting her duties as a goddess and causing widespread famine and suffering. Eventually, Persephone was returned to the surface world, but only for part of the year; during the other part, she was forced to live with Hades in the underworld. This myth explains the changing of the seasons, with Demeter's grief causing the earth to wither and die during the winter months.
The Language of Loss: Sound and Rhythm
Tennyson's poem begins with a description of the landscape in which the myth takes place:
"Faint as a climate-changing bird that flies
All night across the darkness, and at dawn
Falls on the threshold of her native land,
And can no more, thou camest, O my child,
Led upward by the God of ghosts and dreams;
Who laid thee at Eleusis, dazed and dumb,
With passing thro' at once from state to state,
Until I brought thee hither, that the day,
When here thy hands let fall the gather'd flower,
Might break thro' clouded memories once again."
The first thing that strikes the reader about this passage is the use of sound and rhythm to create a sense of movement and urgency. The repetition of the "f" sound in "faint," "flies," and "falls" creates a fluttering effect, like the wings of a bird. The rhythm of the lines is irregular, with short phrases and pauses that mimic the bumpy flight of the bird. The effect is disorienting, as if the reader is being carried along by the bird's flight.
This use of sound and rhythm is a hallmark of Tennyson's style, and it is especially effective in this poem, which deals with the emotional turbulence of grief and loss. The irregular rhythm and shifting sounds mimic the erratic nature of the grieving process, as emotions come in waves and often feel overwhelming and unpredictable.
Imagery: The Changing Seasons and the Cycle of Life
Another key element of Tennyson's poem is the use of imagery to convey the themes of loss and the cycle of life and death. In the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the changing of the seasons is a symbol of the goddess's grief and her daughter's return to the surface world. Tennyson captures this symbolism in his description of the landscape:
"And round about the Keleusian hill
The whirling woodland-fluttering in the storm—
And cave-porch'd headlands blustery with the gull—
Ye know, sweet bee-keeper, our butment here
Of Sieve and Prosymna;—hither thither stream'd
Her auburn hair, blown by the jealous wind
Love-faint for her, whom focusing all their shafts
In that sweet-craving season, as to freeze
And fetter into lifeless undivulged
Hard buds, the lily maidens follow'd far
—Ah, sad thy lot, Persephoné, dark Queen,
Goddess of Purgatory, twice a bride,
And none to help, neither of Gods nor men!"
The imagery here is rich and complex, with multiple layers of meaning. The "whirling woodland-fluttering in the storm" evokes the chaos and unpredictability of grief, while the "cave-porch'd headlands blustery with the gull" suggests the desolation and loneliness of the underworld. The "auburn hair" blown by the wind is a powerful symbol of the mother's grief, which is so intense that it affects the very landscape around her.
The lily maidens who follow Persephone are another powerful image, representing the unfulfilled potential of life cut short. They are "hard buds" that will never blossom, frozen in a state of longing and unrealized potential. This image is particularly poignant given the context of the myth, in which Persephone spends part of the year in the underworld, unable to fully live and grow.
Symbolism: The Pomegranate Seeds and the Power of Choice
One of the most famous elements of the Demeter and Persephone myth is the story of the pomegranate seeds. Persephone is allowed to return to the surface world, but only if she has not eaten any food in the underworld. However, she has eaten six pomegranate seeds, and so must spend six months of the year in the underworld. This story is often interpreted as a symbol of the power of choice, and Tennyson explores this theme in his poem:
"Yet not the less
She knew her mother loved her, nor the less
Loved she her mother: though she miss'd awhile
The sunshine of her presence; for the world
Of Hades, tho' an involuted coil
Of caverns, heaved about by subtle roots
Shot from the earth beneath, and ruled by one
Gold Phlegethon, was only half as dead
As sleepers seem to sleep, or night to reign
In day's behalf—dark Hades, hiss'd with flame."
Here, Tennyson suggests that Persephone's choice to eat the pomegranate seeds was not entirely her own, but was influenced by the environment in which she found herself. The underworld is not a place of absolute darkness and death, but a complex and nuanced realm that is "only half as dead" as it appears. This ambiguity reflects the complexity of choice in real life, where our decisions are influenced by a wide range of factors, some of which are beyond our control.
Conclusion
In "Demeter and Persephone," Alfred, Lord Tennyson uses language, imagery, and symbolism to create a powerful and moving portrait of grief, loss, and the cycle of life and death. His use of sound and rhythm creates a sense of movement and urgency, while his rich imagery evokes the landscape of the myth and the emotions of the characters. The symbolism of the pomegranate seeds highlights the theme of choice and the complexity of decision-making in real life. Overall, Tennyson's poem is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, and a timeless exploration of the human experience.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Demeter and Persephone: A Tale of Love, Loss, and Renewal
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Demeter and Persephone" is a classic retelling of the ancient Greek myth of the goddess of agriculture and her daughter, who is abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. The poem is a powerful exploration of the themes of love, loss, and renewal, and it captures the essence of the myth in a way that is both timeless and deeply moving.
The poem begins with Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, wandering the earth in search of her daughter, Persephone, who has been abducted by Hades. Demeter is consumed by grief and despair, and her sorrow is so great that the crops wither and die in her absence. The poem is filled with vivid imagery that captures the desolation of the earth without Demeter's presence:
"The fields are bare, the leaves are sere,
The rivers are dry, and the rocks are bare,
The sheepfold is empty, and the cattle stall
And the woods are silent with the sound of despair."
Tennyson's use of language is masterful, and he creates a sense of emptiness and desolation that is palpable. The reader can feel the pain and sorrow of Demeter as she searches for her daughter, and the emptiness of the earth without her presence.
As Demeter wanders the earth, she encounters a young girl who offers her a drink of water. The girl is Persephone, who has been taken by Hades to be his queen in the underworld. Demeter is overjoyed to see her daughter, but her joy is short-lived, as Persephone tells her that she must return to the underworld with Hades for a portion of each year. This is the reason for the changing of the seasons, as Demeter's grief causes the earth to wither and die in the absence of her daughter.
The poem is a powerful exploration of the themes of love, loss, and renewal. Demeter's love for her daughter is so great that it consumes her, and her grief at her daughter's absence is so intense that it causes the earth to suffer. But even in the midst of her despair, Demeter finds hope and renewal. She discovers that Persephone is not lost to her forever, and that she will return to the earth each year, bringing with her the promise of new life and growth.
Tennyson's poem is a beautiful meditation on the cyclical nature of life and death, and the power of love to overcome even the greatest of sorrows. It is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is always hope for renewal and growth, and that the love between a mother and daughter is a bond that can never be broken.
In conclusion, "Demeter and Persephone" is a classic poem that captures the essence of the ancient Greek myth in a way that is both timeless and deeply moving. Tennyson's use of language is masterful, and he creates a sense of desolation and emptiness that is palpable. But even in the midst of this despair, there is hope and renewal, and the poem is a powerful reminder of the power of love to overcome even the greatest of sorrows.
Editor Recommended Sites
Privacy Dating: Privacy focused dating, limited profile sharing and discussionExplainable AI: AI and ML explanability. Large language model LLMs explanability and handling
LLM training course: Find the best guides, tutorials and courses on LLM fine tuning for the cloud, on-prem
Nocode Services: No code and lowcode services in DFW
Web LLM: Run Large language models from your browser. Browser llama / alpaca, chatgpt open source models
Recommended Similar Analysis
A Passing Glimpse by Robert Lee Frost analysisSonnet XVIII by William Shakespeare analysis
Hurt Hawks by Robinson Jeffers analysis
About The Nightingale by Samuel Taylor Coleridge analysis
Mr Bleaney by Philip Larkin analysis
Incident Of The French Camp by Robert Browning analysis
Abraham to kill him- by Emily Dickinson analysis
Number 20 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti analysis
Ye Banks And Braes O'Bonnie Doon by Robert Burns analysis
On Turning Ten by Billy Collins analysis