Theocritus - a Villanelle
Theocritus - a Villanelle - form Summary
Villanelle of Recurring Memory
Wilde adapts the villanelle’s strict refrains to summon a classical, pastoral past. Repeated lines address a poetic singer and ask Dost thou remember Sicily?
, creating circular nostalgia and a litany of mythic scenes—Polypheme, Daphnis, Amaryllis—that blur memory and artifice. The form’s return of voice and images makes recollection feel ritualized and inevitable, turning elegy into a haunting, chant-like invocation of an idealized Sicily.
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! Simaetha 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?
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