Customer Reviews

Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

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Rachel Zucker, Eating in the Underworld (Wesleyan, 2003)

This small but powerful volume is really one long poem, meditating on the Persephone/Demeter/Hades story, told in fragments of diary entries, notes, and letters between the three principals.

"Am I the only one to notice the soft layer of haze above the snow?

Yo say you see butterflies in the skeleton pelvis, well,
what about the larger hand of the clock?
Or a cauldron for boiling water?"
(--"Letter: Demeter to Persephone")

Concise, image-laden, with a fine sense of observation and wisdom, Eating in the Underworld satisfies on every level save one; you wish it were longer. ****

These poems were a wonderful example of combining an old myth with the society and culture of modern times.
The poet explores several aspects of the life of Persephone beyond what the mythology tells us. She uses the mythology as an inspired lead-in to what she has to say about the world; about a woman. Very thought provoking!
Many of the poems appear to be simple blocked out references, and then one comes to find that each phrase can hold so much meaning. I can get a different interpretation every time I read the poems in this book.