The Pomegranate
By Evan Boland
Presented By
Chelsea and Brittany
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
– 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
– 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
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/
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.
• (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)