The Pomegranate By Evan Boland

1. The Pomegranate By Evan Boland Presented By Chelsea and Brittany

2. Vocabulary • Pomegranate- a round reddish fruit with a tough rind enclosing numerous seeds within a tart juicy red pulp • Ceres- Roman and Greek Mythology The goddess of agriculture. Also known as Demeter • Persephone-in Greek mythology, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus who was abducted by Hades, king of the underworld. She spent half the year in the underworld and half on Earth. • Underworld-in classical mythology, the place beneath the ground where the souls of the dead go. Ruled by Haites

3. The only legend I have ever loved is the story of a daughter lost in hell. And found and rescued there. Love and blackmail are the gist of it. Ceres and Persephone the names.

4. I can enter it anywhere. And have. As a child in exile in a city of fogs and strange consonants, I read it first and at first I was an exiled child in the crackling dusk of the underworld, the stars blighted.

5. Later I walked out in a summer twilight searching for my daughter at bed-time. When she came running I was ready to make any bargain to keep her.

6. I carried her back past whitebeams and wasps and honey-scented buddleias. But I was Ceres then and I knew winter was in store for every leaf on every tree on that road. Was inescapable for each one we passed. And for me.

7. It is winter and the stars are hidden. I climb the stairs and stand where I can see my child asleep beside her teen magazines, her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit. he pomegranate! How did I forget it?

8. She could have come home and been safe and ended the story and all our heart-broken searching but she reached out a hand and plucked a pomegranate.

9. She put out her hand and pulled down the French sound for apple and the noise of stone and the proof that even in the place of death, at the heart of legend, in the midst of rocks full of unshed tears ready to be diamonds by the time the story was told, a child can be hungry.

10. I could warn her. There is still a chance. The rain is cold. The road is flint-coloured. The suburb has cars and cable television. The veiled stars are above ground. It is another world.

11. But what else can a mother give her daughter but such beautiful rifts in time? If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift. The legend will be hers as well as mine.

12. She will enter it. As I have. She will wake up. She will hold the papery flushed skin in her hand. And to her lips. I will say nothing.

13. The Story of Persophone • PERSEPHONE was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides. She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshipped alongside her mother Demeter in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife. • Persephone was titled Kore (the Maiden) as the goddess of spring's bounty. Once upon a time when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Persephone was seized by Haides and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her dissappearance and searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess Hekate bearing torches. When she learned that Zeus had conspired in her daughter's abduction she was furious, and refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned. Zeus consented, but because the girl had tasted of the food of Haides--a handful of pomegranate seeds--she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth. • http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html

14. Structure • The structure is unlike the rest. Usually she stays consistent with her 7 stanza structure, but in this poem she writes it as more of a story and so it’s 2 very long stanzas.

15. Inarguables • Speaker – Boland herself • Referring to Greek mythology. • Situation – daughter is growing up and she is slowly losing her daughter to maturity • Poem that reflects feminism as well as Irish nationalism • Idea of time is that it has many speeds throughout life • Super fast • Super slow • Boland uses the mythological characters of Ceres/Persephone to connect herself as a mother who is losing her daughter due simply to maturity over time.  • Feeling of growth and maturity • Mother - Feminism

16. Daughter is becoming stronger, wiser, more assertive, and independent • “winter was in store for every leaf on every tree on that road” (lines 20-21) • “when she came running I was ready to make any bargain to keep her” (Lines 15-16) • Boland is trying to keep her daughter from growing up and moving away • Foreshadows her daughter’s gateway into adulthood • Shows independence and ability to survive by eating the pomegranate • Irish nationalism • Daughter and mother symbolize Ireland and its motherland, England • Mother continually laments about her daughters independence • Symbolizes national tension and constant struggle between Ireland and England • Irish attempt to gain independence

17. Mother = England • “the legend will be hers as well as mine. She will enter it. As I have. She will wake up.” (Lines 50-52) • England admits that the Irish have a strong passion for freedom, happiness, and justice. • Similar to a daughter growing up • Mother admits that once daughter changes, rebellion emerges and freedom is hard for the mother to take back • Daughter = Ireland • Daughter uses the legend to restore history • Symbolizes Ireland restoring its history and state

18. Boland Quotes • One poem that gave me trouble, and in a strange way, was a poem I wrote called "The Pomegranate". I began to write it one winter in Dublin. My beginning of it wasn't much different from any other beginning. But somewhere in the middle of it I began to lose track of the poem. It just didn't move forward in any coherent way. (Boland) • http://www.smartishpace.com/pqa/eavan_boland/ • "The Pomegranate" is a sort of nature poem in that way--there's a deeply seasonal aspect to the raising of children. And I wanted to write that. (Boland) • http://www.smartishpace.com/pqa/eavan_boland/

19. Arguables • It is hard to continue living for yourself after you have been living for your children for so long • You must accept that we all have to grow up and let go of the ones we love • Pivotal lines: • (lines : 7-12) “I can enter it anywhere. And have. As a child in exile in a city of fogs and strange consonants, I read it first and at first I was an exiled child in the crackling dusk of the underworld, the stars blighted.” Here she is Peresophone. • (lines : 11-16) “. Later I walked out in a summer twilight searching for my daughter at bed-time. When she came running I was ready to make any bargain to keep her.” In this part the speaker is referring to how she is Ceres willing to make any bargain, like the one Haites makes with here, in order to keep her daughter.

20. (line :26-29) “I climb the stairs and stand where I can see my child asleep beside her teen magazines, her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit. • The pomegranate! How did I forget it?” This line represents the speaker being reminded of her daughter inevitably growing up, maturing, and losing her innocence • (lines : 52-54) “She will hold the papery flushed skin in her hand. And to her lips. I will say nothing.” In this part of the poem she is coming to terms with the fact that her daughter must become an adult. As Ceres she is the goddess of the harvest and represents fertility. Because she knows it is necessary for her daughter to participate in all elements of the cycle. (cycles such as child birth)