Theocritus (by Oscar Wilde)

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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?




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Comments

  • 3/11/2010 8:48 PM chris wrote:
    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
    1. 3/12/2010 9:05 AM Jesus Crisis wrote:
      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.

      Polypheme is the French version (also used by H.P. Lovecraft) of the name Polyphemus (who was a one-eyed son of Poseidon): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphemus

      I don't recognize Lacon as a specific character from Greek mythology/literature.  My best guess is that Wilde used that name as a euphemism for a generic Spartan (the Latin word for Spartan is laconicus) or someone he regarded as laconic.

      Reply to this
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