Adonis

Corpse into Flower

 

Even though Venus loves Adonis, the goddess is powerless to prevent his death. Still, she gives him a kind of immortality.

 

“The image of thy death,

“Annual repeated, annual shall renew

“Remembrance of my mourning. But thy blood

“A flower shall form. Shalt thou, O Proserpine,

“A female body to a scented herb

“Transform; and I the Cinyreïan youth

“Forbidden be to change?”—She said, and flung

Nectar most odorous on the ebbing gore;

Which instant swelling rose. So bubbles rise

On the smooth stream when showery floods descend.

Nor long the term, an hour's short space elaps'd,

When the same teinted flower the blood produc'd:

Such flowers the deep pomegranate bears, which hides

Its purple grains beneath a flexile rind.

But short its boast, for the same winds afford

Its name, and shake them where they light adhere:

Ripe for their fall in fragile beauty gay.