The answer for part A is: The images of “dead winds” and “spent waves,” combined with those of “the green field growing” and people “reaping” at “harvest-time,” help convey that the poem is about death and life.
Swinburn wrote this poem during the time in which the Church of England tried to fight secularism by having people ask themselves if there was life after death. The guarantee of eternal life would only be given to those who believed in God and obeyed the Church’s morals. The theme of life and death was, thus, a popular and controversial one at the time.
The Garden of Proserpine focuses on the goddess, Persephone, as a deity of death and the underworld where she inhabits as a land of dreams. Those dreams, however, don’t cause tears or smiles. Such lack of feelings, though, is far from being sad. It is only peaceful.
That takes us to part B: The speaker says he is tired of people and their bad decisions, which always ruin the happy things in life.
People are never able to find real peace. They are always seeking for happiness and even sadness – anything that might make them feel alive and important. The speaker is weary of such fruitless pursuit and seems to appreciate the illusion Persephone’s flowers cause. Sleeping (dying) is peaceful, restoring, while being awake (living) is tiring and purposeless.
