The White Goddess

Graves designed the unique structure of this poem, which is inspired by traditional poetic forms. He divided the 20 lines into three stanzas. The first stanza is a sexain (has six lines), and the other stanzas are octaves (eight lines). All of the stanzas have rhyming couplets (pairs of lines that rhyme). It is written in the plural first person, or from the perspective of a group with an unspecified number of people.

The first stanza introduces two groups of people—1) those who “scorn” (Line 3) the titular “Goddess,” and 2) those who seek her. The first group contains people with restrained personalities: saints and “sober men” (Line 1). Their restraint is described with allusions to Greek myth and philosophy; Graves links them to masculine Apollo and the “golden mean” (Line 2), or a path of moderation. This group disapproves of going “sailing” (Line 3) in search of the Goddess. They are the religious oppressors of people who participate in Goddess-centered rituals, like the poetic theme that Graves presents.

Line three transitions between the two groups, switching to the people going sailing. This is the first example of a stanza changing focus midway through. The group seeking the Goddess is only referred to using the pronouns “we” and “our.” They are willing to travel extensively, going to “distant regions” (Line 4). This is in contrast to the conservative group who does not seek out adventure. The Goddess is described as intangible or untouchable, like a trick of the light or sound—“mirage and echo” (Line 6). The group wants to understand, or “know” (Line 5), her mystery. Their “desire” (Line 5) to uncover the mystery is one way Graves’s theme of the Goddess mythology is developed. The fact that she is desired “above all things” (Line 5) demonstrates her power over the group who seeks her.

The second stanza describes both the sailing group’s journey and the Goddess’s features. Unlike the “scorn[ful]” (Line 3) saints and “sober men” (Line 1), this group believes their quest has “virtue” (Line 7). They encounter a variety of natural forces, from a “volcano’s head” (Line 9) to “pack ice” (Line 10). They also travel “Beyond the cavern of the seven sleepers” (Line 11), a religious location in Jordan. This eclectic list illustrates the extensiveness of their journey—how far they are willing to go for the Goddess. The elements they encounter, fire and ice, also figure into Graves’s Goddess mythology surrounding the changing of the seasons.

After the list of locations, the speaker lists features of the Goddess. This change of focus in Stanza 2 echoes the shift between the two groups—the opponents of the sailors and the sailors—in Stanza 1. Graves’s style of physical description is a literary device called the blazon (a poetic itemization of a woman’s physical beauty). The speaker highlights her forehead, eyes, lips, hair, and hips. In these descriptions, “white” (Lines 12 and 14) is repeated, echoing and emphasizing the title. The pronoun “Whose” (Lines 12 and 13) is also repeated in this stanza, connecting her white forehead with her blue eyes. The descriptions center around natural elements, developing Graves’s theme of the divine being embodied in the natural world.

The third stanza compares the seasons of spring and fall. The final stanza, like the previous two, shifts focus about halfway through. The forest is filled with “Green sap” (Line 15) in spring, which celebrates and complements the Goddess’s colors, white and blue, from the previous stanza. Birds in the forest, like the forest itself, “celebrate the Mountain Mother” (Line 16), or the White Goddess, by singing in the spring. The Goddess is part of the earth and is celebrated by flora and fauna in Graves’s retelling of the Goddess myth.

However, the speaker’s group looks at her in “November” (Line 18), or the “Rawest of seasons” (Line 19). This is, in the northern hemisphere, autumn, or the time of year when green leaves fall and the Goddess stands “nakedly” (Line 20). In this stanza, Graves develops the sexual face of the threefold Goddess in his mythology. The conflation of naked tree and naked woman develops his idea that human women are a natural embodiment of the divine.

The poem ends with a look at the darker side of the threefold Goddess. In addition to inspiring songs in the spring and having her naked beauty exposed in the fall, she has shown the speaker’s group “cruelty” (Line 21) and betrayed them in the past. However, they “forget” (Line 21) these dark times, leaving themselves open to the “next bright bolt” (Line 22). This final symbol of lightning can be read as literal lightning on the Goddess’s mountain-body where the group travels, and as a metaphor for catastrophe. It bridges the natural and human worlds and completes the cycle in Graves’s Goddess myth.