“Prayer to Persephone”: Song for voice and orchestra

“Demeter rejoiced, for her beloved daughter [Persephone] was by her side”, painting by Walter Crane

A short song for voice and orchestra. Text is “Prayer to Persephone” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, from her 1921 collection “Second April”.

LYRICS

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be;
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell,—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, “My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.”