Freelance Writing Jobs | Today's Articles | Sign In

Swinburne's A Forsaken Garden

Poetic Imagery Portrays How Time Reaps a Grim Harvest

Apr 1, 2009 Melody Rhodes

Algernon Charles Swinburne's A Forsaken Garden likens a neglected cliffside garden, ravaged by the passage of time, to the loss of innocence, love and life.

In a coign of the cliff . . . the ghost of a garden fronts the sea.

So opens Swinburne's haunting poem, A Forsaken Garden, a work that shows that time reaps the greatest harvest of all.

A Forsaken Garden

A Forsaken Garden is rich in imagery and contrasts, painting a striking picture of neglect and decay. Although the poem may not be considered purple prose in the strictest sense, Swinburne utilizes shades of this technique to style words that are particularly effective in Garden.

Swinburne's garden is abandoned and desolate, devoid of blooms and even of weeds. All that is left are thorns. In contrast, the wording pulses with life, encompassing a rich tapestry of sound expressed through alliteration. This vibrant wording serves to paint an even more powerful picture of desolation.

The poet alludes to loss of innocence and his "thorns" could be likened to painful lessons and cynicism that make inroads, overtaking the "roses," the flower of youth, when idealism and dreams are at their highest.

To the straight waste place that the years have rifled/

Of all but the thorns that are touched not of time.

Time Harvests the Garden

Swinburne intimates that "foam flowers" or natural forces are unrelenting and endure far longer than short-lived roses. He makes a powerful statement that time, like waves, can pass by quickly but has a powerful impact.

For the foam flowers endure when the rose blossoms wither/

The poet examines love, both fickle and lasting, showing that fickle love dies through neglect and that even enduring love must yield, because all lovers face the same eventuality.

Love deep as the sea as a rose must wither/

As the rose-red seaweed mocks the rose.

A Forsaken Garden explores the cycle of life and death and this cycle is reinforced in the flow of the words, which have an almost hypnotic quality. The three syllables ending each stanza contribute to this rhythmic effect.

An interesting contrast is made of the seemingly impervious cliffs and rocks, which, at the end of the poem are destroyed by the deceptively soft and fluid sea. While portraying the inevitability of death, A Forsaken Garden teaches important lessons about life.

Lessons From a Forsaken Garden

Perhaps the greatest lesson in Swinburne's A Forsaken Garden is that life, like a garden, should be tended with care, so that the ravages of time do not render such a telling impact.

In contrast, a life that is carelessly lived, that wants for oversight and care, will be buffeted by "sea winds" and overtaken by "thorns" that much sooner.

While time does overtake all gardens, as is portrayed so poignantly in A Forsaken Garden, garden plots can be a thing of beauty, places where roses overshadow the thorns for a sweet season.