"'''Hymn to Proserpine'''" is a [[poem]] by [[Algernon Swinburne|Algernon Charles Swinburne]], published in [[1866]]. The poem is addressed to the [[goddess]] [[Proserpina]], the Roman equivalent of [[Persephone]].

The poem opens with the words ''Vicisti, Galilæe'', [[Latin]] for "You have conquered, O Galilean," the apocryphal [[Wikiquote:Last words|dying words]] of the Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]]. He 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 lamenting its passing, and expresses regret at the rise of [[Christianity]]. Lines 35 and 36 express this best:

:''Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;''
:''We have drunken of things [[Lethe]]an, and fed on the fullness of death.''

The line "Time and the Gods are at strife" inspired the title of [[Lord Dunsany]]'s ''Time and the Gods''.

The poem is quoted by Sue Bridehead in [[Thomas Hardy]]'s 1895 novel, ''[[Jude the Obscure]]'' and also by Edward Ashburnham in [[Ford Madox Ford]]'s ''[[The Good Soldier]]''.

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
*[http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/2088.html Full text]

[[Category:British poems]]
[[Category:1866 poems]]
[[Category:Victorian poetry]]