But what else can a mother give her daughter?

Once again it is very interesting to me the differing interpretations and emotions that can come from separate readers reading the same body of work, In this case the myth of Persephone. The point of views expressed by Dove and Boland differ greatly in many ways, such as in length, composition, language used, and also the overall mood of the poems.

Dove presents the myth as a warning that young beautiful girls should heed. Dove almost seems to be presenting two warnings, one to beautiful young girls in their rebellious teenage years, and one to younger girls, perhaps elementary age.

In the first stanza Dove speaks of a beautiful girl rebelling (perhaps against her mother’s rules) the reader gets the sense that the young girl is feeling constrained, and is pulling back against the rules and expectations placed on her. There is also an element of teenage lust and romance in this stanza, as if part of the girl’s rebellion is in relation to a bad boy who is lusting after her and influencing her in some way. “She pulled, stooped to pull harder- when, sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible carriage, he claimed his due.”  The boy influenced the girl to rebel against her constraints, “she pulled [away from her family]… [climbed up on] his glittering terrible carriage” and he was able to have his way with her.

In the last two lines of the first stanza there seems to be a sudden shift in tempo. The action in the story the narrator is telling reaches its climax when “he [claims] his due,” then suddenly “it is finished”.  There is a sense that the narrator blames the young girl for her own downfall when she says “she strayed from the herd.”

In the second stanza the narrator seems to be conveying a warning to young girls about the danger of strangers, she says “this is important, stop fooling around! Don’t answer to strangers.” The intended audience in this stanza seems younger than in the first because she refers to their peer group as “playmates” and warns them to walk “straight to school.”

Boland presents the myth in an entirely different manor. Boland’s poem is longer, more personal, and in my opinion a lot more emotional. As opposed to speaking about anonymous young girls such as Dove did in her poem, Boland is relating the myth to her own life and the relationship she has with her daughter.

Boland opens by saying “the only legend that I have ever loved,” this foreshadows the upcoming sentiment of the poem and makes allusion to a common phrase used by parents in reference to their children. Boland is quick to show she understands the challenges of development and inner turmoil when she says “the best thing about the legend is I can enter it anywhere. And have.” She first relates it to her own adolescents when she explains “I was an exiled child in the crackling dusk of the underworld, the stars blighted,” in stating this she shows the reader that she is not naive to the struggles that young women can face, when you are in a dark place it can seem as if any light or hope, has completely ceased to exist. Dusk is an interesting time, the sun is no longer shining on us and keeping us warm, nor has the moon or stars had a chance to display their brilliance; it as if we are momentarily caught in a space where neither end of the tunnel is in sight.

In the next line we are moved from dusk, the end of the day, “in [to] a summer twilight", a time where new light begins to come forth and free us from the darkness. The reader is given the sense that the mood is about to get lighter and happier, then is quickly shown otherwise as the narrator frantically searches “for [her] daughter at bed time. [and] when she came running [she] was ready to make any bargain to keep her [safe].” The narrator is desperate to save and protect her daughter from the dangers and pain that she knows lie in wait for her as she navigates her way through the underworld of adolescents. She knows it is impossible to protect her completely “I was Ceres then and I knew winter was in store… [it] was inescapable.”

As with Dove’s poem the mood changes in the second stanza, here the narrator observes from afar and recognizes the change in her daughter. “The pomegranate! How did I forget it?” the pomegranate in this sense represents some sort of temptation or evil, perhaps drugs, or boys, or sex. The fruit representing temptations and evil is further solidified when the narrator alludes to the apple of Eden, the bible’s symbolic representations of temptation and moral decline. Still at this point it seems that the narrator does not blame her daughter for eating the fruit, she says “a child can be hungry.” She relates the myth of Persephone to real life once again when she says “the suburb has cars and cable television. The veiled stars are above ground” when she says this she is showing the reader that it is no longer the  abstract underworld  that we need to be conscious of but rather the everyday temptations and distractions that seek to have us deviate from our intended path.

In the completion of her poem the narrator reiterates that she does not judge her daughter for her missteps, that she will always love and support her, and that she accepts her completely as she is; “what else can a mother give her daughter but such beautiful rifts in time? If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift.” And finally closes off by saying that when her daughter’s time to be a mother comes she will hold her own child and know the emotions of her own legend. “the legend will be hers…she will hold the papery flushed skin in her hand. And to her lips. I will say nothing.”

The myth of Icarus is about “Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea” (http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/icarus.html).

This myth is similar to the myth of Persephone in the way that it depicts a child/ parent relationship, and heeds a warning to children about the dangers of not listening to their parents.  Both poems also seemed to give a lesson about balance and moderation, you can fly… just don’t go too high, and you can take some risks but make sure they are risks you can come back from.