Pervigilium Veneris

Pervigilium Veneris (or The Vigil of Venus) is a Latin poem of uncertain date, variously assigned to the 2nd, 4th or 5th centuries.

[1][2] It was written professedly in early spring on the eve of a three-night festival of Venus (probably April 1–3) in a setting that seems to be Sicily.

The poem describes the annual awakening of the vegetable and animal world through the "benign post-Lucretian" goddess,[3] which contrasts with the tragic isolation of the silent "I" of the poet/speaker, against the desolate background of a ruined city, a vision that prompts Andrea Cucchiarelli to note the resemblance of the poem's construction to the cruelty of a dream.

The poem ends with the nightingale's song, and a poignant expression of personal sorrow: illa cantat; nos tacemus; quando ver venit meum?Quando fi(am) uti[5] chelidon, ut tacere desinam?Perdidi Musam tacendo, nec me Phoebus respicit.Sic Amyclas, cum tacerent, perdidit silentium.Cras amet qui nunqu(am) amavit; quiqu(e) amavit cras amet.

John Fowles' The Magus ends indeterminately with the vigil's refrain, a passage to which he often directed readers wishing greater clarity about the novel's conclusion.