MH
The poem “Persephone, Falling” by Rita Rove is a free verse sonnet, with an octave, sestet, and a couplet inside of the sestet. By first looking at the title an allusion is evident because Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter in Greek mythology. She was abducted by Hades, and made his of the underworld. One could infer that this poem is going to relate to this Greek myth story of Persephone.
Rove chooses to leave the characters names in the poem unsaid by just saying, “one” in the first line and repeating this in the second line as well. Instead of calling the person by her name she calls her a “narcissus” which is a daffodil flower. Rove explains how unique the character is by using juxtaposition when she said, “among the ordinary beautiful” claiming that she stands out from other people.
The use of repetition continues in line 2 with the word “pull” to show how badly the girl wanted the flower and she wasn’t going to give up trying to get it out of the ground. There is a dash after it talks about her pulling harder for the flower which isn’t really necessary, but Rove did this to give off anticipation to readers that something bad is about to happen and also a sense that the girl is all alone, not paying attention to her surroundings. The poet again applies juxtaposition in line 5 when the girl gets abducted as he “sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible.” The next character is brought up in this line when he takes the girl because he “wants to claim his due” meaning he has been searching for her and he came to get her. Even though she was abducted, no one heard her screams or witnessed this happen, making it look like she disappeared. This can be inferred in lines 7-8 when the poet wrote, “It is finished. No one heard her. No one! She strayed from the herd.” The poet’s sentences here are very short and to the point because it is such a serious and scary situation the girl is in.
Furthermore, the last part of the poem is a sestet, which is where one can see the shift in the poem because now there is an intimate look at the mother’s heart and how she feels towards her daughter. The mother comes off as serious when talking to her child. It’s possible she has told her child this advice many times before, according to line 9 as stated, “(Remember:.” Throughout lines 9-12 it can be suspected that the mother cares deeply and loves her child so much that she doesn’t want her to ever be in harm. There is also a couplet evident in the sestet in lines 13 and 14 where a sense of ambiguity is captured. Rove implies repetition of the word, “this” and it comes off as how easy situations happen. The poet uses parallel structure to also convey that it is easy to take advantage of children because most are naïve, therefore it easy for them to fall into traps. Rove then ends her poem by foreshadowing death when she says, “one foot sinks into the ground.” This also ties back to the intro of them poem with the girl pulling the flower from the ground, now leaving us readers with the thought of her being in the ground where the flower once was.
The poem “Persephone, Falling” by Rita Rove is a free verse sonnet, with an octave, sestet, and a couplet inside of the sestet. By first looking at the title an allusion is evident because Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter in Greek mythology. She was abducted by Hades, and made his of the underworld. One could infer that this poem is going to relate to this Greek myth story of Persephone.
Rove chooses to leave the characters names in the poem unsaid by just saying, “one” in the first line and repeating this in the second line as well. Instead of calling the person by her name she calls her a “narcissus” which is a daffodil flower. Rove explains how unique the character is by using juxtaposition when she said, “among the ordinary beautiful” claiming that she stands out from other people.
The use of repetition continues in line 2 with the word “pull” to show how badly the girl wanted the flower and she wasn’t going to give up trying to get it out of the ground. There is a dash after it talks about her pulling harder for the flower which isn’t really necessary, but Rove did this to give off anticipation to readers that something bad is about to happen and also a sense that the girl is all alone, not paying attention to her surroundings. The poet again applies juxtaposition in line 5 when the girl gets abducted as he “sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible.” The next character is brought up in this line when he takes the girl because he “wants to claim his due” meaning he has been searching for her and he came to get her. Even though she was abducted, no one heard her screams or witnessed this happen, making it look like she disappeared. This can be inferred in lines 7-8 when the poet wrote, “It is finished. No one heard her. No one! She strayed from the herd.” The poet’s sentences here are very short and to the point because it is such a serious and scary situation the girl is in.
Furthermore, the last part of the poem is a sestet, which is where one can see the shift in the poem because now there is an intimate look at the mother’s heart and how she feels towards her daughter. The mother comes off as serious when talking to her child. It’s possible she has told her child this advice many times before, according to line 9 as stated, “(Remember:.” Throughout lines 9-12 it can be suspected that the mother cares deeply and loves her child so much that she doesn’t want her to ever be in harm. There is also a couplet evident in the sestet in lines 13 and 14 where a sense of ambiguity is captured. Rove implies repetition of the word, “this” and it comes off as how easy situations happen. The poet uses parallel structure to also convey that it is easy to take advantage of children because most are naïve, therefore it easy for them to fall into traps. Rove then ends her poem by foreshadowing death when she says, “one foot sinks into the ground.” This also ties back to the intro of them poem with the girl pulling the flower from the ground, now leaving us readers with the thought of her being in the ground where the flower once was.