Hello Chris,
Thanks for such a thoughtful and in-depth question(s), and for your kind words about the poem. I am glad it struck some sort of chord.
To a certain extent, the stimulus of the poem lies in its companion piece ("Hades Welcomes His Bride") which was written four or five years previous. But I had not really got the whole thing out of my system. And I don't know that I have yet. ("The Dogdom of the Dead" is also related--it takes a line from the Persephone poem and riffs on it.) And it just now occurs to me that some of the details may result from the fact that at the time I was living in a dark basement apartment, and was in fact just below the earth myself...
Yes, you are right, my Persephone doesn't ever leave hell--and as a result there are no changes of the seasons. (I am comfortable taking pretty big liberties with myths!) But she is sometimes depicted as being the Queen of the Dead, and as such, I don't really see her as executing her royal duties only part time. Many of the observations you make about the poem seem right to me, though I am not sure I could have articulated any of it myself. The poem does seem to be about grief, with Persephone as grieving rather than grieved for, and about the absolute break between the world of the living and the dead (even the letter rots, and can communicate nothing). Although truthfully I cannot claim to have had any of that in my conscious mind while composing it.
I may have to mull over this...
Alicia
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