Major Poems and Selected Prose

I have not read this entire collection, but the works I have read are listed and rated below:

• “Ave Atque Vale”: The speaker mourns the death of the poet Charles Baudelaire. This poem provides a more hopeless view of death than many other poems do. Rating: 3.5/5
• “A Forsaken Garden”: The speaker conveys the hopelessness presented by the ultimate death of all things through his description of a desolate oceanside. Rating: 3/5
• “Hertha”: A goddess, who describes herself to be the one true source of all things, preaches to humanity a kind of humanistic religion which is to bring the death of all other religions. Rating: 4.5/5

• “Hymn to Porserpine”: After the issuance of the edict of Millan, the speaker contemplates the replacement of the pagan religion with Christianity and the change that time brings. He does not submit to Christianity’s rule, but instead submits to the goddess of death. Rating: 2.5/5
• “The Lake of Gaube”: The speaker demonstrates the need for fear for the health of the soul and life using the image of a diver diving deep into a lake and feeling the possibility of death all around him. Rating: 3.5/5
• “Poeta Loquitur”: Swinburne presents a parody of his own writing, saying that his poetry is no good and is nothing but wind. Rating: 2/5
• “Sonnet for a Picture”: The speaker parody’s the human view of passion and romance as the ultimate end/good. Rating: 2/5