Hymn to Proserpine

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“Hymn to Proserpine” is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in Poems and Ballads in 1866. The poem is addressed to the goddess Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone, but laments the rise of Christianity for displacing the pagan goddess and the pantheon.

Added on June 2, 2023

Tags: egregore, Europe, Hellenistic, Pagan, romanticism, tradition

Novalis: Hymns to the Night (Part I)

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Novalis, pseudonym of Friedrich Leopold, Freiherr von (baron of) Hardenberg, (born May 2, 1772, Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony [Germany]—died March 25, 1801, Weissenfels, Saxony [Germany]), early German Romantic poet and theorist who greatly influenced later Romantic thought.  Seven months after the publication of Hymns to the Night, Novalis died of tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his fiancé. Although the cryptic diction […]

Added on February 2, 2023

Tags: Novalis, poetry

The Mistress of Vision by Francis Thompson

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Francis Thompson’s poem ‘The Mistress of Vision’ was written and worked on c.1895‒6 while FT was living at Pantasaph, and it was first published in New Poems (1897) in a section titled ‘Sight and Insight’.

Added on June 7, 2022

On Raglan Road by Kavanaugh Paul

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The attested story is that Patrick Kavanagh personally gave Luke the poem.
The setting of the ballad to the air of the older song ‘The Breaking of the Day’, which Kavanagh himself desired, is in no way straightforward; in fact it’s a work of musical genius.
That’s why Kavanagh probably thought “I can’t fit the words and music quite right, I’ve tried; if anyone can, this man can do it.”

Added on June 6, 2022