Theocritus (by Oscar Wilde)

Theocritus
by Oscar Wilde (1881)
A Villanelle
O singer of Persephone!
In the dim meadows desolate
Dost thou remember Sicily?
Still through the ivy flits the bee
Where Amaryllis lies in state;
O Singer of Persephone!
Simatha calls on Hecate
And hears the wild dogs at the gate;
Dost thou remember Sicily?
Still by the light and laughing sea
Poor Polypheme bemoans his fate:
O Singer of Persephone!
And still in boyish rivalry
Young Daphnis challenges his mate:
Dost thou remember Sicily?
Slim Lacon keeps a goat for thee,
For thee the jocund shepherds wait;
O Singer of Persephone!
Dost thou remember Sicily?





I have to go brush up on my Greek mythology I see... I don't know who Polypheme or Lacon are...
But like the style of the poem...
Reply to this
All this time I've been misspelling it villainelle. I had to check when I saw Wilde spelled it villanelle. Seems appropriate, as Wilde, despite his prison sentence, was no villain.
Reply to this