Pandora's Box

by IvoryRose

Published November 18, 2017

E - Everyone

In Poems

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Pandora stared

She stared at the box

The overwhelming aesthetic of it

How it mocked her

Such beauty she shall never see

The beauty that the world would never see.

If only Zeus had given her a hideous box

Yes it was his fault

If he had given her an archaic, ugly box

Then maybe just maybe she wouldn’t be so tempted

Tempted to discover its secrets.

Zeus’ warning made Pandora feel daunted by the box

His strong hypocrisy

Both the box and she were beautiful gifts

Yes, Zeus was tricking them!

Tricking her to keep its wonderful secrets hidden

Hidden from mortals

Hidden from the world

Such selfishness

The question was what

What was Zeus hiding

The secrets of Aphrodite's great beauty

The secrets of the God’s power

Or maybe he was trying to hide a secret like fire.

Hidden from everyone but him.

Yes it was him hogging a wonderful secret

It was almost as if the box was speaking to Pandora

Her husband did not hear the calls

It drove her mad

All day and night

The calls grew and grew

Until she couldn’t resist it anymore.

Opening the box slightly wouldn’t do anything

A small peephole

A crevice

Harmless it should be

It would shut the voices of the box

Like innocents crying for help

That the Gods had cheated them

Pandora could not continue this

This hellish torture

And so like that, she opened it.

She gave into temptation

Like Eve did to the snake

She did the deed

And regretted it.

Mocking laughter greeted her

The gluttonous and slothful sins

Plagues and other evils

Pandora wept at how foolish she was

And clung on to the bit of hope that was inside of the box.

Comments & reviews · 7
User avatar
Morgan
Review
Morgan wrote a review Review · Mar 3, 2019

Hi. It’s Morgan. Remember how I said that I couldn’t wait to see some of your work? Yeah well I was so happy when I found that this one was by you. So anyway, ready for the review?

First off, I think it was great. I adore Greek mythology. I remember reading Percy Jackson: Son of Neptune in like third grade. That was when I fell in love with Greek and Roman mythology and all of Rick Riordan’ books. They’re amazing, and I see that you’ve pulled off a great poem of the same myths. You started off with a great start and ended the poem pretty interesting. Plus, your vocabulary was outstanding. Good job!

Although, I would considering maybe putting in some punctuation just to organize the poem and maybe separating it into stanzas. If the poem is more of a story-type then the stanza part doens’t have to be necessary, but definitely put in some punctuation. That way the poem would flow more. If. you need help with the stanza part, just put in something that. would be the separation.

Sorry, bad explaining. Here’s an example...

the cat went to the store.
˙˙˙˙
Then it went home.

so you see the dots, right? Yeah, that’s how I do it. I mean, I know it may be weird, but hey, It works! So anyway, I really enjoyed the poem and I loved the idea of using myths. Good job and keep writing!

Thanks for the feedback, I can%u2019t wait to read your stuff

User avatar
JoeBookman
Review
JoeBookman wrote a review Review · Dec 30, 2017

Hi, it's Joe.

The first thing I want to say is: excellent. Mythology is an interest of mine and I always like to see new approaches.

I think you did a fantastic job at exploring Pandora's psyche and motivations. It's easy to recite a story like this one, but to actually explore it more deeply and make the reader feel it again like they're reading it for the first time is just fantastic.

One thing I note is, mid-poem, you don't use any question marks.

What was Zeus hiding

The secrets of Aphrodite's great beauty

The secrets of the God’s power


Poetry, obviously, is open for creative use of punctuation, but I think that by adding some question marks to each of these lines you could give your reader some pause while reading, which would improve the overall flow.

I think it's interesting how you compared Pandora to Eve. That's honestly not something I've ever considered before, but it's a great correlation. Those kinds of little bits of illumination are great.

I think you may benefit from cutting the poem into stanzas. Right now it's one long list of lines. By quartering them off into blocks, it'll be a much more manageable read and you can dedicate each section to a specific part of the "story" being told here -- you know, beginning, rising action, climax, etc.

If you ever edit this in the future, please reply to this review. I'd love to take another look after you've made changes to see what else I can spy.

Great work and great job. Look forward to more.

Joe

User avatar
wordwing
Comment
wordwing commented Comment · Nov 18, 2017

Yass, fellow mythology geek <3
Wonderful poem!

Glad you liked it!

User avatar
Radrook
Review
Radrook wrote a review Review · Nov 18, 2017

Nice twist to the mythological story. Very skillful use of imagery! I find that the accusations against Zeus match perfectly with the accusations that the serpent in Eden made against God. In fact, I once read that the Pandora myth is merely a twisted recollection by post- Flood people of what originally took place in Eden. You know, in the same way that the half god half-humans such as Hercules and Achilles are perhaps recollections of a pre-flood world where the sons of God or fallen angels produced such superhuman offspring called Nephilim.

Suggestions:

When referring to supernatural entities like the ones in Greek mythology, it is customary to always use "gods"" or "god" instead of "God" or "Gods".

Show us how the box is beautiful by describing it. If you just tell us, we can't see it.

Thanks for your feedback!

User avatar
IvoryRose
Comment
IvoryRose commented Comment · Nov 18, 2017

Yo idk what happened to my reply.

annasophia4201 wrote a review Review · Nov 18, 2017

Alrighty, so first off, I ADORE Greek mythology!! I'm so glad you wrote such a lovely poem about a classic myth. I like how the poem flows- the rhythm created by the spacing is nice. I know most computer programs automatically capitalize each line- was this a problem you encountered or an intentional use of capitalization? Also, I don't think the poem is bad at all the way it is, but separating it into stanzas might help readers. Overall, great job! I really enjoyed this:)

Yeah on the draft the stanzas separated but when I posted it for some reason it didn%u2019t. Next time I%u2019ll make sure to double check! Thank you for the review and I%u2019m glad you liked it!

Yeah on the draft the stanzas separated but when I posted it for some reason it didn%u2019t. Next time I%u2019ll make sure to double check! Thank you for the review and I%u2019m glad you liked it!

User avatar
IvoryRose
Comment
IvoryRose commented Comment · Nov 18, 2017

Dang it stanza didn't separate! Oh well sorry about that......



The poetry of the earth is never dead.
— John Keats