As time passes, plants grow, people grow old, and eventually those closest to you will leave you by your side. In the myth of Ceres and Persephone, the god of the harvest loses his now mature daughter to the king of the underworld. The story continues showing the prolonged search for his dear daughter and the emotional turmoil that comes from this sudden situation. “The Melagrana” and “The Bistro Styx” illustrate the complex mother-daughter relationship between a modern Ceres and Persephone; while both poems describe a mother's struggle to accept a daughter's coming of age, Boland shows a mother's eventual acceptance of this while Dove conveys a mother's denial and struggle against it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Both works effectively show the similar internal battle that the mother, the narrator, and Ceres silently face when they realize her daughter is ready to leave and move on in her life. Both narrators appear to be in denial. In “The Pomegranate,” the speaker “went out into a summer dusk looking for [her] daughter before going to bed. [She] carried herself back past the rowans and the wasps and the honey-scented buddleias” (Boland 13-18) creating a sense of tranquility, almost as if her daughter had never been taken away from Hades. It is later revealed that he is fully aware of his daughter's departure as he berates the fruit that will ultimately take his daughter away and emphasizes the fact that his daughter "could have gone home and been safe and ended the story and all of our hearts broken". searching, but she put out her hand and plucked a pomegranate” (Boland 30-33). The mother is hopeful, meaning she believes she can still “warn her [daughter]. There [was] still a chance” (Boland 42). However, he will eventually lose his daughter. “The Bistro Styx” also shows a mother in denial. The narrator continually asks multiple questions and criticizes her daughter to convince herself that her daughter is not yet ready to be an adult. Their conversation is cold and short, almost distant. Like “The Pomegranate,” despite her mental battle to keep her daughter, she too will ultimately lose her. Boland describes Ceres as a kind and welcoming mother, patiently waiting and preparing for her daughter to leave her in “The Pomegranate.” The mother refers to the myth of Ceres and Persephone in various instances and states that "the best thing about the legend is [that she] can fit into it anywhere" (Boland 6-7) and she did. She too was “a child in exile in a city of mists and strange consonants” (Boland 8-9) and knows what it will be for her daughter. She too was a little girl who reached the pinnacle of her life, although this time it's different. The speaker will now experience a mother's pain when her child goes a separate path rather than the child's joy in entering the world as an adult. Instead of fighting it, he accepts it. The mother is aware that her daughter's time will come and patiently prepares herself as she "stands where [she] can see [her] little girl sleeping next to her teen magazines, her can of Coca-Cola, her plate of unloved fruit." cut" (Boland 26-28). The mother knows that “the legend [of Ceres and Persephone] will be hers [her daughter's] as well as hers [her own]. [His daughter] will come in. Like [she did]” (Boland 50-51) and accepts it calmly knowing that one day her daughter will “hold the red, papery skin in her hands. And to his lips. [But she] won't say anything” (Boland 52-54). In “The Bistro Styx,” Dove shows Ceres as a seemingly harsh and judgmental mother who is feverishly trying to reunite with her estranged daughter. There.