The Garden of Proserpine

Book excerpt: Original working manuscript of Swinburne's poem "The garden of Proserpine". Bound with the manuscript pages are a printed version of the poem from an unknown published edition (pages numbered 189-192). Formerly owned by the book collector and literary forger Harry Buxton Forman. A note from Forman is written on a blank leaf preceding the manuscript: The Garden of Proserpine, perhaps the loveliest lyric poem Swinburne ever wrote, was set up from this autograph manuscript when the poem took its place in the renowned volume known as Poems and Ballads, issued in the Autumn of 1866, immediately withdrawn under pressure by Mr. Moxon, and speedily re-issued by John Camden Hotten. The calligraphy is more characteristic than excellent. The cancellings and changes, however, are of considerable interest.