[R. S. Gwynn]

Cassandra

Because I turned him down, the god Apollo
cursed me with sight. The gift of art is not
the kind you can refuse. No matter what
you do or fail to do, the scenes will follow
you everywhere, assault you in your dreams.
Even if you could turn yourself to wood,
he'd force your hardened fingertips to bud,
and make a garland of your silent screams.
You don't believe me? Though I've heard you sneer
and call me crazy, still you'd have me offer
forecasts of the future. Apropos
of your young daughter, would you like to hear
what day she'll die and everything she'll suffer?
I thought not. No one really wants to know.


I applaud this sonnet, for one reason because I recently published a short sequence of six dramatic monologues spoken by women from myths. Technically, it seems very solid, and the couple of slant rhymes blend very well with the true rhymes. It is believable as speech. And I like the allusions to other women pursued by Apollo and their fates--nicely done!

Would "proffer" be better than "offer"?

My main problem is with the identity of the "you" in the poem. Since Cassandra's always going to be connected with her appearance in the Oresteia, I'd at first assume the "you" is the Chorus, with whom she famously interacts. But the singlular "daughter" throws me off here. The other choice would obviously be Agamemnon, but the death of Iphigenia was in the past, not the future. My next choice, then, would have to be that she's speaking to Klytemnestra about Elektra, but Elektra doesn't die, does she? I'm a little confused. Can someone straighten me out?

My gut feeling is that "daughters" and plural pronouns would avoid this problem. After all, she's already mentioned several other women who've come to bad ends because of the decidely mixed blessings of dealing with the god who controls fate. Plurals would get me back to the Chorus as "you."