Penelope the faithful weaving wife
Cunning king and clever trickster’s bride
Iron is her will and stratagem
As she turns the suitors’ wiles aside
Waiting twenty years for a return-
Is she a fool committed so to bide?
Mythic woman from the poet’s pen
Ensconced in splendour in the hearts of men.
Pandora gifted with all graces now
A punishment as deadly as she’s fair
To Epimetheus a simple man
Indulgent husband; should have been beware
How guilty is Pandora of a sin?
Entrapment of the gods is perfect snare.
Mythic women from the poet’s pen
Ensconced as warning in the hearts of men.
And here lies sleeping sweet Andromeda
Best-beloved innocent of old
Snatched from leviathan’s greedy jaws
By Perseus, her prince, aloft and bold.
Andromeda the stainless, in whose tale
Immortal song of history is told.
Mythic women from the poet’s pen
Ensconced as victim in the hearts of men.
And here stands fatal Helen in whose name
A thousand ships were launched across the sea
A bloody ocean’s crimson dyes her hands
Her wilfulness in thrall by lust’s decree
Blinded by the meddling of the gods
Just how blameless can she truly be?
Mythic women from the poet’s pen
Ensconced in censure in the hearts of men.
Women in the Hearts of Men
