Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Cleopatra Mathis’s "After Persephone" is a meditation on transformation, loss, and renewal, drawing heavily on the myth of Persephone, whose abduction to the underworld becomes an allegory for the cycles of grief and growth. Mathis reimagines the ancient tale not as a distant mythological event but as an intimate narrative that mirrors human experiences of devastation and resilience. The poem’s layered metaphors and powerful imagery invite readers to contemplate how life emerges from profound loss and the ways darkness, both literal and metaphorical, fosters regeneration.

The poem opens with celestial imagery: “Heaven got sweeter, its paperweight curve star-crazy at its purple center.” This description suggests a deceptive allure, a vision of heaven as desirable but distant, unattainable. The “purple center” carries connotations of richness and temptation, aligning with the mythic underworld’s seductive yet destructive pull. The speaker juxtaposes heaven’s allure with a "god, a weapon in the works," indicating both power and threat—an embodiment of Hades in the Persephone myth. This shift signals the poem’s focus on forces beyond human control, whether divine or natural, that irrevocably shape lives.

In "After Persephone," Mathis places emphasis on the dynamic between taking and giving, themes central to the myth of Persephone’s descent and return. The line, “Something I hadn’t noticed in the field fought out of the layers and took her,” evokes the suddenness and inevitability of loss. The "field" becomes a symbolic space of innocence and abundance, disrupted by forces that lie beneath its surface. This imagery draws a stark contrast between what is seen and unseen, a recurring motif in the poem, emphasizing the tension between surface appearances and hidden realities.

The speaker then shifts to a voice of destruction, stating, “I tore away the land’s every color, withered the smallest grasses.” These actions parallel the grief and rage of Demeter, Persephone’s mother, who causes the earth to fall barren in her mourning. Yet the speaker’s voice is deeply personal, as though they too have endured the annihilation of a cherished part of themselves. The act of dismantling extends to time itself—“Every heartbeat went blank, I dismantled the ticking”—suggesting how grief distorts perception, erases vitality, and freezes existence in its relentless grip.

Despite this devastation, the poem does not remain in despair. Mathis weaves a thread of renewal through the recurring imagery of seeds, growth, and birth. The speaker acknowledges that the destruction has led to something transformative: “They only say what I took, not what I gave: roots and strong light, glory in the single shoot, green currency of the just-born.” This imagery evokes the mythic compromise that allows Persephone to return to the earth for part of the year, bringing spring’s renewal. The “single shoot” symbolizes hope and the persistence of life, even in the wake of irredeemable loss. By framing the process as an exchange, Mathis underscores the duality of creation and destruction, where each element necessitates the other.

One of the most striking aspects of the poem is its redefinition of the underworld. Rather than portraying it as a place of unrelenting despair, Mathis imbues it with the potential for transformation. “From the irredeemable, the buried—this is how a self gets made,” she writes, suggesting that the darkest moments of life contain the seeds of self-discovery and growth. The “swollen red globe” recalls the pomegranate, whose seeds bind Persephone to Hades but also symbolize fertility and the cyclical nature of life. The underworld becomes not only a site of captivity but also one of metamorphosis, where buried pain gives rise to a renewed self.

The poem’s closing assertion, “Hell had to pay,” reclaims agency from forces that seem insurmountable. In myth, the underworld extracts a price, but Mathis reverses this power dynamic, suggesting that the trials endured in darkness ultimately yield their own rewards. This defiance imbues the poem with resilience, transforming grief into an assertion of life’s tenacity.

"After Persephone" is a rich exploration of the intersections between myth and personal experience, where ancient narratives become vessels for contemporary emotional truths. Mathis’s use of vivid imagery and symbolic language captures the complexity of grief and recovery, where destruction and renewal coexist. Like the myth that inspires it, the poem offers a profound understanding of life’s cyclical nature, showing how even in the deepest darkness, there exists the possibility for rebirth.

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