Hymn to Proserpine
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Hymn to Proserpine is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in 1866.
The poem opens with the words Vicisti, Galilæe, Latin for "You have conquered, O Galilean," the apocryphal dying words of the Emperor Julian, who had tried to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the Roman Empire. The poem is cast in the form of a lament by a person professing the paganism of classical antiquity, and expresses regret at the rise of Christianity:
- Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;
- We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.
External link
- Full text (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2088.html)Template:Poetry-stub