Asphodel. 
(I WILL BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.) 
T HIS symbol of love's fidelity was anciently dedicated to 
the memory of departed souls, and in Greece, where it is 
still very common, it was much used at funeral ceremonies ; it 
was planted around the tombs of the deceased; and it was 
believed that beyond the fatal river, Acheron, the shades wan¬ 
dered in a vast field of asphodels, and drank forgetfulness from 
Lethe’s dull waters of oblivion. The flowers of the asphodel 
produce grains with which it was thought that the dead were 
nourished. Orpheus, in Pope’s splendid “ Ode for St. Cecilia’s 
Day,” conjures the infernal deities 
“ By the streams that ever flow, 
By the fragrant winds that blow 
O’er the Elysian flowers; 
By those happy souls who dwell 
In yellow meads of asphodel, 
Or amaranthine bowers.” 
We have as old an authority as Homer for stating that, after 
having crossed the Styx, the shades passed over a long plain 
of asphodels. St. Pierre, in his beautiful “ Harmonies of Na¬ 
ture,” after having dwelt with some earnestness on the pro¬ 
priety of planting flowers on graves, quotes this inscription, 
found engraven on an ancient tomb : 
“ Au dehors je suis entoure de mauve et d'asphodele set au-dedans je ne 
sins qu'un cadavre.” 
Mrs. Browning appears to have entertained a partiality for 
this emblem, she mentions it so frequently in her deathless 
verse. In one of her glorious sonnets from the Portuguese, 
into which she has imparted more beauties than the originals 
possess, she thus magnificiently and symbolically introduces 
the token flower: 
