Jeune Fille.(Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

I find this a sad, tragic ballad. A dancer, who lived in sinful pleasure, went out one Sunday morning and never came back to the town. She is dead, then buried deep in the earth by the townspeople, who made her coffin. Now the young girl is happy in death because flowers, trees, weeds and grasses grow over her grave-site. She lives in this growing vegetation. Her death is, to me, ambiguous. Did she commit suicide? Or did someone from the town murder her? It is more likely, having read more of Hughes' poems last night, the the girl took her own life.
There are five stanzas: the first two and the fourth are quatrains; the third and fifth stanzas are five-lined. The rhyme scheme is: abab/ cded/ fgbeg etc. In the four-lined stanzas, the second and fourth lines rhyme. The 5-lined stanzas are different. It is an intricate, interlocked rhyme scheme, for sure. I think the overall effect of the poem is quite moving.