Hymn to Proserpine

[Belladonnastrap]

I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, that love hath an end;
Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.
Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh or that weep;
For these give joy and sorrow; but thou, Proserpina, sleep.
Sweet is the treading of wine, and sweet the feet of the dove;
But a goodlier gift is thine than foam of the grapes or love.
Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold,
A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold?
I am sick of singing; the bays burn deep and chafe: I am fain
To rest a little from praise and grievous pleasure and pain.
For the Gods we know not of, who give us our daily breath,
We know they are cruel as love or life, and lovely as death.
O Gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day!
From your wrath is the world released, redeemed from your chains, men say.
New Gods are crowned in the city; their flowers have broken your rods;
They are merciful, clothed with pity, the young compassionate Gods.
But for me their new device is barren, the days are bare;
Things long past over suffice, and men forgotten that were.
Time and the Gods are at strife; ye dwell in the midst thereof,
Draining a little life from the barren breasts of love.
I say to you, cease, take rest; yea, I say to you all, be at peace,
Till the bitter milk of her breast and the barren bosom shall cease.
Wilt thou yet take all, Galilean? but these thou shalt not take,
The laurel, the palms and the paean, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake;
Breasts more soft than a dove's, that tremble with tenderer breath;
And all the wings of the Loves, and all the joy before death;
All the feet of the hours that sound as a single lyre,
Dropped and deep in the flowers, with strings that flicker like fire.
More than these wilt thou give, things fairer than all these things?
Nay, for a little we live, and life hath mutable wings.
A little while and we die; shall life not thrive as it may?
For no man under the sky lives twice, outliving his day.
And grief is a grievous thing, and a man hath enough of his tears:
Why should he labour, and bring fresh grief to blacken his years?
Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;
We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.
Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a day;
But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not May.
Sleep, shall we sleep after all? for the world is not sweet in the end;
For the old faiths loosen and fall, the new years ruin and rend.
Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides;
But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides.
O lips that the live blood faints in, the leavings of racks and rods!
O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted Gods!
Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend,
I kneel not neither adore you, but standing, look to the end.
All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrows are cast
Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past:
Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates,
Waste water washes, and tall ships founder, and deep death waits:
Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings,
And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things,
White-eyed and poisonous-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,
Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world.
The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away;
In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey;
In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears;
With light of ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years:
With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour;
And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour:
And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be;
And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the roots of the sea:
And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars of the air:
And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and time is made bare.
Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods?
Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?
All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be past;
Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon you at last.
In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the changes of things,
Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget you for kings.
Though the feet of thine high priests tread where thy lords and our forefathers trod,
Though these that were Gods are dead, and thou being dead art a God,
Though before thee the throned Cytherean be fallen, and hidden her head,
Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go down to thee dead.
Of the maiden thy mother men sing as a goddess with grace clad around;
Thou art throned where another was king; where another was queen she is crowned.
Yea, once we had sight of another: but now she is queen, say these.
Not as thine, not as thine was our mother, a blossom of flowering seas,
Clothed round with the world's desire as with raiment, and fair as the foam,
And fleeter than kindled fire, and a goddess, and mother of Rome.
For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours,
Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers,
White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame,
Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name.
For thine came weeping, a slave among slaves, and rejected; but she
Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her foot on the sea.
And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways,
And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of the bays.
Ye are fallen, our lords, by what token? we wise that ye should not fall.
Ye were all so fair that are broken; and one more fair than ye all.
But I turn to her still, having seen she shall surely abide in the end;
Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.
O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth,
I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth.
In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night where thou art,
Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from the heart,
Where the poppies are sweet as the rose in our world, and the red rose is white,
And the wind falls faint as it blows with the fume of the flowers of the night,
And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of Gods from afar
Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star,
In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun,
Let my soul with their souls find place, and forget what is done and undone.
Thou art more than the Gods who number the days of our temporal breath;
Let these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death.
Therefore now at thy feet I abide for a season in silence. I know
I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep; even so.
For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span;
A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man.
So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep.
For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.

The darkening amber of faith’s sunset, deepened by the dark fruits of Proserpine.

I quoted the entire poem because Swinburne = YAY.


First sniff:
Amber fruits. At first sniff it reminds me a lot of a warmer Morocco with hints of the Pomegrante I get in Persephone.

Wet:
It's pomegrantes dipped in amber buffed with the warmth of the earth and the last rays of a spring day. I don't know if there is pomegrante in this but it's what my body is amping up the most. I also get a bit of sandalwood but it's not the usual cloying I get when I wear sandalwood, it more anchors the scent firmly in the earth. At least it SMELLS like sandalwood, whether or not that's in the perfume is anyone's guess. The amber is of a sweet nature, not overpowering but just the right hint to push the scent into pure warmth.


Drydown:
The amber comes out more and also I get a hint of baby powder, no clue where that is coming from. It also turns into a bit of a warm floral on me. It sort of reminds me of a cross between morocco and bearded lady actually. Not necessarily because there's vanilla (cause I don't smell any) but the nice warm drydown I get from B.L. is a lot like this. Think Morocco's more sensual older sister.



Aftermath:
HELL YES

[slave1]

In Bottle: Honey fruit

 

On Skin: This is so dark and delicious… the beautiful deep resinous golden feel of the amber, sweetend by overly ripe fruit. I’m thinking berries and apples. So delicious and such a different feel for fruit! This is not a smoothie drink scent or a garden of fruit, or anything like that… this is a dark room with velvet drapes and comforters and a big plate of fruit that’s been waiting to be eaten for a while… a little overly sweet and ripe but still edible and not spoiled. I really like it for the most part, but after about a half hour of drydown, I get something a little “off”… kind of like “wet dog”. Not sure what’s causing that but luckily this scent fades pretty quick and leaves behind just a resinous fruity aftertone. Light throw and short wear length.

[Orodemniades]

oo, oo, i only tried this yesterday and my notes are downstairs, but I quite liked this. Wet and dry it was a musky amber with little fruit, perhaps a bit more floral - but with a fruity note, if you will, but overall an ambery musk. funnily enough, when wet i didn't smell it so much as taste it in the back of my throat...odd, that. On drydown the amber came out more, and then after a bit died back down. I didn't find it spicy at all, and I'm not sure what time of the year i'd want to wear it - it's possibly more of a nighttime scent than a seasonal scent.

 

me likee, however.

 

Oro, wondering where her caps have gone

[LiberAmoris]

I splurged on a whole bottle of Hymn to Proserpine unsniffed, and I'm so glad I did!

 

I love pomegranate, and this smells like warm amber and pomegranate, with maybe some darker berry notes and perhaps a little vanilla---or maybe the amber just has a vanilla-ed edge to it. The tartness of the pomegranate balances out the amber perfectly, and it ends up as an almost caramelized pomegranate on my skin.

 

A wonderful interpretation of a great poem.

[shelldoo]

in the vial: soft amber and berries, mostly amber

 

wet: woohoo amber beauty

 

ummmm amber. just amber...possibly something reminecent of myrrh. i loooove amber. not getting florals, or fruits, just a deep resinous amber. love this and will order na big bottle for sure.

[LittleGreyKitten]

Oh. Oh my. Boy did Beth create some absolutely smashing blends during the update that brought us HtP. This is amazing. I love it. I sound like a broken record, I've said that about so many of the blends from this update. But Hymn to Proserpine makes me say it again.

 

The sandalwood- there has to be some in here, there's no question- and amber are mellow and deep, with some hint of goodfruityness. I should have bottled, like I did with the others I felt good about (Eat Me, Drink Me). Because this is gorgeous. It reminds me of Monster Bait: Underpants, somehow. The delicious sandalwood seems similar. Yet with fruit rather than vanilla as the backup. Big bottle, NOW. Oh well, at least I know to order the 10 mL rather than a 5!

 

5 out of 5, oh my yes. This is the sexiest of this batch (Eat Me, Drink Me, the grapefruities, etc.)

[filigree_shadow]

At first it's a juicy bright fruit with dark amber that's going a little bit powdery. After a while the brightness of the fruit darkens quite a bit. And then it starts to smell kind of like Good & Plenty candy.

 

I can tell that this is a great scent, but my skin is making a mess of it. Ah well. I'm sure this imp will find some love with someone else.

 

ETA: I tried this again a few days later and got something else entirely. (I'm blaming hormones.) The second time, it was mostly perfumey amber that doesn't go powdery, and the dark fruits aren't starting to smell like rotten fruit. It's dark, ambery, and only very slightly fruity. Fades pretty fast though; it's almost completely gone in an hour, and only a trace of amber is left.

Edited May 30, 2006 by filigree_shadow

[Diana]

In the bottle: it smells like plum. almost like Bordello, but not as sugary, and definitely not boozy at all.

 

Wet: Oddly enough, this reminds me of BBW Toasted Hazelnut. It smells very similar. Warm, sweet, almost honeyed fruits with just a touch of something powdery and soft underneath. This is amaaaaazing.

 

Drydown: It almost smells like a white musk that comes through on the drydown. The fruity plum notes are just barely there, and there is just a hint of an ambery-resin dry note to round it out.

 

Need. Big. Bottle. Now.

Edited May 25, 2006 by Diana

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a word or two: Musky amber!

 

In the imp: Hmm. Musky amber and muted fruits. I'll also second the idea that it's similar to Morocco.

 

On skin, wet: This is... stunning. There's definitely something like white musk, if not that itself. I don't catch much of the fruits, which, really, I'm glad of. Just a lovely, warm, musky amber.

 

On skin, dry: Musk, amber, and... vanilla? Something here's very reminiscent of Black Opal, somehow. Rich and warm and vaguely sweet. And musky, in a cool, soft way (which makes me think of the Lab's white musk, which is heavenly).

 

Conclusion/Notes: This is one of the most beautiful BPAL scents I've tried. It's very... classy? Sort of a combination of Morocco, Black Opal and something else — and as I love Morocco and Black Opal, it's most certainly a good thing. A 10ml will be had with the next order, oh yes.

Edited June 9, 2006 by Aredhel

[Ryvre]

In the imp: I can't pick out any notes. It's weird and sharp.

 

Wet: Strong amber and green plants.

 

Dry: Amber and musk. It's heavy and strange.

[ajcj213499]

I was able to try this as a part of Quikslvr's GC Swap Circle.

 

Wow- this is beautiful! It's a nice warm amber with a bit of juiciness. It almost reminds me of a fruity Tushnamatay (if that makes any sense). It's very "smooth" smelling. I need another imp of this, or maybe a bottle...

[oedipa]

Wet on wrist - Oh no! Old lady smell. It's musky, and there may be a hint of sweetness (the pomegranate, I think) underneath, but it's mostly musk musk musk.

 

10 minutes - I'm mentally renaming this "Mostly Musk". I try to get an up-and-close sniff and catch a bit of something else (vanilla?) but the musk is literally making me feel naseous, so I back off.

 

30 minutes - Ok, I never made it half an hour. Everytime I lift my hand I smell musk. The fingers that touched the bottle smell like musk. Everything smells like musk! When the apocalypse comes, all that will remain are cockroaches, twinkies, and musk.

 

Final verdict? I scrubbed my wrist, hands and fingers and they still smell faintly of, you guessed it, musk. I'm really disappointed, because I love pomegranate and wanted to love something named Hymn to Proserpine...but alas! musk prevails!

Edited June 12, 2006 by oedipa

[olympia301]

 

This one really suits me. For some reason I get one of the same notes out of HTP as I did out of Underpants. I have to say "amber" because that is part of the description, but there is a ghostly vanilla flitting about in the background. I can't really say I smell pomegranates or any fruit at all for that matter, but this is all beautiful and very difficult to pin down. I will be getting myself a 5ml bottle of this with my next order. It is just beautiful.

[Rhowan]

In the vial and wet on my skin, I get a hint of unsual fruitiness with amber. I mean unusual because the fruits are exotic, maybe something I haven't even tasted or smelled before. All with an undertone of amber.

 

As HTP starts to dry down both the amber and fruitiness increase in strength. Amber, golden beautiful amber. Maybe pomegranate, golden figs, and a touch of dark fruit of which I can't name - This doesn't smell "fruity" like you would think.

 

Completely dried down and I am totally in love! This reminds me of a deep golden color (the amber) that darkens slowly and finally goes to black.

 

My conclusion? I didn't want to try this at first because of the fruits but to me it isn't fruity in a normal fruity way. Hymn to Proserpine brings to mind an exotic land of spices, dark fruits and amber. It is a darker, very sultry oil almost perfume. Great throw and long wear! My husband loves this on me! This is definitely a bottle!

[Brianne]

In the vial:

Something vaguely fruity and sweet - the fruit smells a little like plum maybe?

 

 

On me:

I'm actually really surprised to see only one other person compare Hymn to Proserpine to Black Opal! To me, HtP is the cousin of Black Opal - it has that same gritty, resinous sweetness to it - a sort of edge to it I'd say. It's not as sweet as Black Opal, but it definitely has a similar vibe and at least one of the notes comes out the same on me in both. This was the shocker hit of my whole order this time around (out of a bottle of Dragon Moon, a bottle of Enraged Bunny Musk, and two imp packs full of new scents for me) - and I wasn't even expecting to like it! I figured I had a 50/50 chance because amber so often goes powdery sweet on me. But the amber in this one is more of a sticky, resinous, dark amber than the usual one I smell. The fruits are also dark - it's not what I'd call a fruity blend, and yet I do smell the fruit. I think I smell plum in here, because that sweet smell makes me think of Bordello. I really don't smell pomegranate, unless this pomegranate has taken on a much sweeter and plummy smell. In which case, it smells like plum anyways lol. It has a somewhat smokey quality to it as well, it's very alluring and womanly. This is a sophisticated fragrance.

 

Final note:

Such a complex, beautiful fragrance. If you like Black Opal, I'd recommend this one. Definitely a surprise winner in my last order!

[Blood onmy hands]

Hymn to Proserpine smells like someone took Oya's dark plum and turned it into a sugar plum.

 

Amber goes to dusty powder on me and pomegranate is one of the fruits that smells sharp and awful on me... and all I'm getting here is sweet, sugared plum.

 

Dark and sweetly fruity. It's a very simple fragrance on me.

 

I can see myself getting a 5 ml of this one .

[edenssixthday]

Hymn to Proserpine - This is a strange scent on me. It’s a lovely, warm amber mixed with deep, dark fruits, but has an “after-scent” that smells like rancid berries on my skin. As it dries down, the scent of spoiled fruit dissipates significantly, but it’s still there right beneath the lovely amber glow. I usually light fruity scents, especially the dark fruits, but this one is simultaneously way too bitter and overly-sweet (i.e., rancid). I hope this works for the next person I’m passing it on to.

[Miss Lynx]

This is the one I was most looking forward to in my recent order(s), apart from Frumious Bandersnatch, and I was certainly not disappointed. In fact, I'd have to say it blows the Bandersnatch right out of the water. And possibly every other scent ever made. Yes, it's that good.

 

Amber is one of my all-around favourite notes, and this is possibly the most gorgeous amber scent BPAL (or anyone else) has yet come out with. It's deep and resinous and glorious, but with layers of dark fruitiness to give it extra depth... Just beautiful.

 

I dabbed it on quickly before rushing out to help a friend move, and it held up quite nicely over several hours of hard work. I kept catching whiffs of this glorious scent and thinking "Whoa! Something in here smells amazing! Oh wait... it's me!"

 

I was almost tempted to buy a 5 mL instead of an imp as soon as I saw it listed, because it sounded so perfect. Looks like I should have gone with my intuition, because this is absolutely about to head up by big-bottle wishlist. It might even displace Bewitched as my signature scent, and I wouldn't have thought that was possible.

 

Grade: A+

 

ETA (two months later): Sometimes I'm initially very enthusiastic about a scent, but then the glow wears off quickly. This has not been one of those times. It took an effort of will not to completely blow through my imp before my 5 mL arrived, and now that I've got the 5mL, I am still in love with this scent. The interesting thing is, the initial scent when it's first applied is almost overwhelmingly sweet... But it's as it settles in over time that the true beauty of it comes out. It lasts for hours, and the longer it wears, the more the notes mingle beautifully and all kinds of hidden layers of depth come out. This one has definitely earned a permanent top 10 spot for me.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Miss Lynx

[GemmaCat]

This smells like softest amber with maybe a little spice in the background. It has a 'warm air' quality to it, like I'm being buffeted by a hot breeze, and has a much softer fruity note than I expected.

 

Two words to describe this would be 'exotic' and 'spicy'. The drydown is a little medicinal, reminding me of cherry cough syrup.

 

Not for me, though I do love that 'warm breeze' feeling Beth managed to capture.

[sarada]

I immediately started drooling when I read the brief note description of this and knew I should have just ordered a bottle unsniffed. I love amber, though I prefer it very deep and thick, sweet, resiny and rich. I love "dark fruits" if that means things like plum, pomegranate and purple or red berries.

 

When I got a sneak sniff of this a little over a month ago it struck me as somewhat lighter and more pale gold and perfumey than I had expected, since I was thinking of something that would be intense like Blood Countess.

 

But now that I have an imp, I'm going to go through it within a week I think because I can't stop drenching myself in it! These are some of the best ingredients in the world for my particular chemistry. Amber, when it works, is long-lasting, radiant, golden, and slightly sweet and the fruits are a luscious ruby and purple bouquet, just tart enough that the scent explodes like bubbles fizzing at your nose when you go to sip a freshly-poured glass of soda.

 

It dries into a lasting, radiantly sweet resiny-fruity scent, though still much lighter than I expected. I like it anyway though. I like it a lot. This will be a bottle for sure, as I can't stop using the imp. I love it on my skin, where it positively comes to life, and I love it in a locket, where it stays at a slightly paler and lighter tone throughout the day, but lasts even longer. I wish I'd just taken a chance on a bottle all at once!

[pink.owl]

Smoky, Musky, Sultry, Creamy, Fruity. Good lord, this is ineffably beautiful. I wish I could pin it down, but have to accept that it is so well blended that I can not pick out any one thing. I get the feel of it, just not individual components. The throw is mild, a bit stronger than Black Opal, compared to which I get similar background creaminess. I don't care, though.

I want to pour gallons of Hymn to Proserpine on a marble slab and roll around in it naked.

 

10ml, immediately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*edit for spelling*

Edited July 14, 2006 by pink.owl

[songtoisis]

I wanted to love this fragrance but alas, I can't. It started out with a sweet fruit and warm amber glow, with something stronger underneath that catches my throat a bit. Before long, the fruit on my skin starts to warm up and ripen until it seems rotten and inedible. That undernote burned forward and took over the scent entirely within an hour or so--a strong, insistent musk. This oil doesn't suit my personality at all--it is a little corrupt and a little decadent and a little overpowering in a way that I never am. Like its namesake poem, the scent hints at death and decay sitting out with an offering of fruit and flowers in a dark, velvet-papered parlor. It is a very goth scent--full of anguish and poetic expression and a morbid sort of elegant beauty. Not for me, but an evocative fragrance nonetheless.

[eggplant]

I've been dying to try Hymn to Proserpine and wanted to love it, but it just smells...off. It's a mixture of dusty, rotton fruit and strong cheap perfume that's starting to go bad with a hint of baby powder thrown in for good measure. And it smells...humid? Kind of as if I'm stuck in a tiny, unairconditioned windowless apartment on a really humid day with a bunch of women who bathed in cheap drugstore perfume and then covered themselves in baby powder. And there's a bowl of two week old fruit sitting on the table. That's exactly what my wrist smells like right now.

 

I really don't want to give up on this one so I'll try it again next week, but this is most likely going up for swaps. So disappointing.

[WidgetAlley]

Swap with LUSHarick. So pleased I get to try one of the newer GC blends.

 

In the Imp: Oh, wow, that's really... interesting! It doesn't smell like anything I've ever run across before, which is awesome. I can detect tangy-sweet, sparkling fruit (apple? Pomegranite?) but the primary scent seems to be something just underneath that.... something very smooth and rich. The overall effect is almost like.... wine? Wine and amber: some of the strongest, darkest amber I've ever had the pleasure of sniffing. Like Oro, I almost taste this more than I smell it. Damn sexy.

 

Wet: Spicy, smoky, just a touch powdery, fruity, round.... and yes, alcoholic! I'm going to second (third? fourth?) the sandalwood and vanilla guesses-- if not vanilla, then magnolia or tonka or something creamy and sweet. Might be just a dab of floral and musk, too. This is sophisticated and womanly and very much a night-time scent. Mutable, too; I keep catching whiffs and wafts of different things as I sniff, first close up and then far away. Completely enchanting.

 

Dry: Baby's got throw! I can smell it hanging in the air, even with my wrists on the keyboard. Oddly enough, it reminds me of a fruity, wine-y Snake Oil, or the grown-up sister of Smut, or the cousin of Black Phoenix, or even of Tarot: The Star (the same fruit-over-deep-richness, although different fruits and a different kind of richness.) Instant BPAL classic, right here. I foresee this becoming a smash hit.

 

Verdict: I went to say hi to my mum in the kitchen and she sniffed me and said, "It makes me think of winter-- heavy brocade." She's absolutely right. Candlelight and velvet and dark, deep reds... I don't know if I have enough of the right sort of occasion to justify a bottle of this, but I'm hanging onto my Imp, and I very well might jump at a 5mL, given the slightest excuse.

[fallow deer]

This reminds me very much of Al Azif with fruity top notes. I think it's lovely - I enjoy Al Azif and the fruits add a bit of bounce and bite.

Edited July 9, 2006 by fallow deer