The Garden of Proserpine by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Garden of Proserpine

Here, where the world is quiet;
Here, where all trouble seems
Dead winds' and spent waves' riot
In doubtful dreams of dreams;
I watch the green field growing
For reaping folk and sowing,
For harvest-time and mowing,
A sleepy world of streams.

I am tired of tears and laughter,
And men that laugh and weep;
Of what may come hereafter
For men that sow to reap:
I am weary of days and hours,
Blown buds of barren flowers,
Desires and dreams and powers
And everything but sleep.

Here life has death for neighbour,
And far from eye or ear
Wan waves and wet winds labour,
Weak ships and spirits steer;
They drive adrift, and whither
They wot not who make thither;
But no such winds blow hither,
And no such things grow here.

No growth of moor or coppice,
No heather-flower or vine,
But bloomless buds of poppies,
Green grapes of Proserpine,
Pale beds of blowing rushes
Where no leaf blooms or blushes
Save this whereout she crushes
For dead men deadly wine.

Pale, without name or number,
In fruitless fields of corn,
They bow themselves and slumber
All night till light is born;
And like a soul belated,
In hell and heaven unmated,
By cloud and mist abated
Comes out of darkness morn.

Though one were strong as seven,
He too with death shall dwell,
Nor wake with wings in heaven,
Nor weep for pains in hell;
Though one were fair as roses,
His beauty clouds and closes;
And well though love reposes,
In the end it is not well.

Pale, beyond porch and portal,
Crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all things mortal
With cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are sweeter
Than love's who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her
From many times and lands.

She waits for each and other,
She waits for all men born;
Forgets the earth her mother,
The life of fruits and corn;
And spring and seed and swallow
Take wing for her and follow
Where summer song rings hollow
And flowers are put to scorn.

There go the loves that wither,
The old loves with wearier wings;
And all dead years draw thither,
And all disastrous things;
Dead dreams of days forsaken,
Blind buds that snows have shaken,
Wild leaves that winds have taken,
Red strays of ruined springs.

We are not sure of sorrow,
And joy was never sure;
To-day will die to-morrow;
Time stoops to no man's lure;
And love, grown faint and fretful,
With lips but half regretful
Sighs, and with eyes forgetful
Weeps that no loves endure.

From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

Then star nor sun shall waken,
Nor any change of light:
Nor sound of waters shaken,
Nor any sound or sight:
Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,
Nor days nor things diurnal;
Only the sleep eternal
In an eternal night.
--Algernon Charles Swinburne

I'm home in Ohio today, and I've borrowed my mom's copy of Best Loved Poems of the American People. It's the first book of poetry that I really spent a lot of time reading as a child -- beyond Mother Goose and A Child's Garden of Verses of course. As I was flipping through, I found a bit of paper stuck in the page with this poem -- perhaps it was a coincidence, but as I was intending to post this poem sometime anyway, I decided today was as good a day as any.

It's a pretty depressing poem all in all. The author seems to be saying that it sure is a good thing that we are able to die and be done with this whole weary living and loving business, and he sure is glad that death is the end of it, and there's nothing after that worth mentioning. That made it a perfect poem for Lemony Snicket to reference in his book The Slippery Slope. After deciphering a code, the children realize they have to find the last quatrain of the eleventh stanza of The Garden of Proserpine by Algernon Charles Swinburne. It tells them that all of the men in their lives that had died-their father, Jacques, Uncle Monty, etc were really dead and were never coming back to life, and that they needed to follow the weary river (or Stricken Stream) to the sea to find the last safe place.

Anyway, I looked up the whole poem and liked it. I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment, but it certainly conjures up a mood.