Back to Index

Theocritus: a Villanelle

by Oscar Wilde, 1881

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!

 Simætha 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?

Published in Poems
Tags:

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.