THE
CHARGE OF THE GODDESS
A PIECE OF ORAL TRADITION WRITTEN DOWN FOR THE FIRST TIME (that I know of)
ANONYMOUS
Once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, meet
me in some secret place and adore the Spirit of Me who am the
Queen of all Witcheries For [sic] I am a gracious goddess. I give
joy on earth, certainty not faith, while in life and upon death
peace unutterable. Rest.[sic] The ecstasy of the Goddess. [sic]
Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice, for I am a gracious goddess.
Love and mirth are my rituals. For I am the beginning and the end
of the circle of rebirth. From from me all things flow and to me
all things must go.
What follows is my setting of the piece into lines. Square
brackets [ ] are used to show words I think are wrongly added or
are incorrectly placed.
THE CHARGE OF THE GODDESS
Once in the month, and better it be
When the moon is full meet Me
... in some secret place.
[And] Adore the Spirit of Me
Who am Queen of all witcheries,
For I am a gracious Goddess.
I give joy on earth, certainty
Not faith while in life, and upon death
Peace unutterable, rest.
[The ectasy of the Goddes],
[Nor do] I demand aught in sacrifice,
For I am a gracious Goddess.
Love and mirth are my rituals
For I am the beginning and the end
Of the circle of rebirth.
For From Me all things flow,
And to Me all things must go.
RATIONAL FOR LINE BREAKS AND ANALYSIS OF FORM
Initially, I decided on line breaks by gut feeling and by the
meaning that was established by vertically reading the line ends.
When I felt the line ends I had determined made sense, I then
started an analysis for the iambic, trochaic, dactylic,
anapestic, and spondee types of feet for the meter. The meter I
felt was being set up was: first stanza, 4,3, unknown feet;
second stanza, 3, 3, 2 feet; third, 4, 4, 4; fourth stanza,
unknown,4, 4 feet; fifth stanza, 4, 4, 3; and the final couplet,
3 and 3. This seemed to me to be a regular enough meter to
constitute a poetic structure. After doing this I searched for a
poetry form that would be composed of tercets and found the
description of a villanelle. A villanelle "is comosed of
five three-line stanzas [tercets] and a concluding stanza of four
lines, each stanza ending with an alternating line from the first
verse. In the last stanza both of these lines appear together as
a concluding couplet. Only two rhymes are permitted throughout
the verses" ( Witherspoon, 1942/1951, p. 1346).
Looking at the rhyme scheme required of the villanelle, I saw
that “be,” the last word of the first stanza’s
first line, rhymes with “Me” of the second
stanza’s first line and “ty” of
“certainty” of the third stanza’s first line. This
is in keeping with the villanelle structure. Since this much of
the rhyme scheme in the fragment matches well with a villanelle
structure, I felt the fourth stanza’s first line must be
incorrect. Continuing to studying the rhyme sequence for
similarities to the villanelle, I found that the word
“Place,” of the last line of the first stanza rhymes
with “dess” of “Goddess” of the last lines of
the second and fourth stanzas. It is an "off-rhyme" but
is still acceptable. The word “rest” of the third
stanza’s last line is forming assonance with the
“dess” of “goddess.”
Further, it seemed to me that the “For I am a gracious
Goddess” is the repeating of a line required by villanelle
structure. I believe the “Nor I” of the fourth stanza
is incorrect because the meter set up by the previous stanzas
means these two words would add an extra foot and so are
inappropriate for the rhythms, and they are not needed for the
meaning of the line. In the fifth stanza the rhyme has been
abandoned, but perhaps poetically this is acceptable for the
effect and for the meaning. Dropping the rhyme in the fifth
stanza might have been a way to give freshness to a poetic form
overused and stilted, and to dramatically emphasize the meaning
of these lines.
The villanelle requires a quatrain for the finish and that two of
the lines must be repeat lines. My instinct that the piece was
unfinished was correct. By the established form of villanelles
there should be a third line that rhymes with “be,”
“Me,” and “ty” and the fourth and last line
should be “For I am a gracious goddess.”
I marvelled at the poem. The use of assonance, off-rhyme, the deliberate abadoning of the established rhyme scheme in the fifth tercet while all the while a rhythm steadily beat beneath it all meant that this villanelle had been constructed by a master poet. It was time to discover who that master poet might be.
copyright 2000 Cynthia Joyce Clay all rights reserved