Love Poem: The Abduction of Persephone
Michael Degenhardt Avatar
Written by: Michael Degenhardt

The Abduction of Persephone

Wandering the fields of nature, breezes gently blowing by,
She captured the hearts of many; she was a beauty in their eyes.
The daughter of a god, Zeus, all powerful and strong
And Demeter, goddess of harvest, in her eyes, she did no wrong.

Persephone, the daughter, helped her mother tend the fields
The fertile land created, the prosperous harvest yields.
While wandering the field that day, the ground broke open wide
Hades, god of the underworld, came out and took his bride.

Into the depths of his lair, Persephone had descended
Hades came to steal the beauty, for as he had intended.
Zeus would not agree, to the marriage of the two
So, Hades did what he always felt he had to do.

Demeter, not knowing, searched the world, land and sea
In hopes of finding and bringing home, the girl Persephone.
While wandering and searching, the crops, they had all died.
For, they would never flourish, while Demeter searched and cried.

Zeus sent word to Hades, to send his daughter back home
But Hades, being tricky, had an idea all his own.
He had her eat some seeds from the fruit his garden yields
A pomegranate, cursed, a pact with him now sealed.

For when she took upon herself to eat of Hades’ seeds
She sacrificed her own wants and satisfied his needs.
As a result, she was bound to return to him each year
For a season long, she was gone and Demeter shed her tears.

Demeter, always wanting Persephone to have stayed
Gave up the crops for that time while she had gone away.
Each year she went to Hades, as bound, that was the reason
Unto the earth, Winter was born, the harvest’s downtime season.

From those days on, she would be known no longer as that girl
Taken as bride, she became the goddess of the underworld.