Question

PLEASE HELP In what way does Rita Dove's poem expand on the myth of Demeter,

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer is option ‘c’. The author portrays Demeter’s reaction as thoughtful and restrained.

Explanation:

Rita Dove, an accomplished poet, uses the Greek myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. In the myth, Persephone is abducted by the Hades, the King of the underworld. Demeter displays a dereliction in duties, overcome by sorrow and anger. So, the crops fail. Zeus pleads with hades to return Persephone. He agrees but on the condition that she would return to the underworld for a part annually. This resulted in fall and winter every year – the time Persephone spent in the underworld.  

Summer and spring was the time when she would return to the earth to be with her mother. This myth explained the cycle of seasons. She expands the myth placing it in the in the modern world in individual manifestations portraying the anxiousness of the mother full of the same anxieties .She is thoughtful but now understands that she has lost her daughter to a stranger with whom the daughter has fallen in love.