Proserpina (Come Home to Mama)

This is an achingly beautiful homage to Demeter and Persephone. It was written by Kate McGarrigle, a folk singer and mother of singers Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright. It's the very last song McGarrigle wrote, she died in 2010. There is a video of McGarrigle performing it just a few months before she passed (during which she acknowledges that she took a creative liberty citing Hera instead of Demeter/Ceres: link).

This is Martha performing it:



Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mama, come home to mama
Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mother, come home to mama now

I shall punish the earth
I shall turn down the heat
I shall take away every morsel to eat
I shall turn every field into stone
Where I walk, crying alone

Crying for Proserpina
Proserpina, come home to mama
Come home to mama now

Proserpina! Proserpina!
Go home to your mother
Go home to Hera
Proserpina! Proserpina!
Go home to your mother
Go home to Hera now

She has punished the earth
She has turned down the heat
She has taken away every morsel to eat
She has turned every field into stone
Where she walks, crying alone
Crying for…

Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mama, come home to mama
Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mama, come home to mama now

She has turned every field into stone
Where she walks, crying alone
Crying for…

Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mama, come home to mama
Proserpina! Proserpina!
Come home to mama, come home to mama now

Beautiful! How'd I miss this one? Thank you for sharing.

It's lyrically simple yet so poignant. I read an interview with Martha and she spoke of how profoundly the song affected her, especially as she was pregnant and in the UK and was unable to go to her mother when she on her death bed (her mother was in Canada).

Agreed! It's a lovely song!