Line 428 allusions

There are a few allusions for line 428. The first part alludes to the Pervigilium Veneris The secord part, "O swallow swallow," is often seen to allude to Tennyson's The Princess. This site's commentator currently is unsure of the connection but wishes to point out the use of the swallow in the myth of Osiris. Osiris is mentioned in Eliot's first note.

Pervigilium Veneris

It is not known who wrote the Pervigilium Veneris. It may date back to the First Century AD.

Before reading the poem you should first read Ovid's The Story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela or our synopsis of the Philomela myth by visiting line 99.

The quote is in Latin:

Quando fiam uti chelidon
When shall I become like the swallow?

She sings, I am mute. When will my spring come?
When shall I become like the swallow, that I may cease to be voiceless?
I have lost my Muse, through being voiceless, and Phoebus regards me not;
so did Amyclae through being voiceless, persish by its very silence.

Walt Whitman's poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. has in stanza 10 the lines

O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?
And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?

See other Whitman allusions.