Algernon Charles Swinburne

"Fate, that was born ere spirit and flesh were made,     The fire that fills mans life with light and shade;     The power beyond all godhead wh"

"The dusk of days decline was hard on dark     When evening trembled round thy glowworm lamp     That shone across her shades and dewy damp"

"Enough of ease, O Love, enough of light,     Enough of rest before the shadow of night.     Strong Love, whom death finds feebler; kingly Love,"

"All the bells of heaven may ring,     All the birds of heaven may sing,     All the wells on earth may spring,     All the winds on earth may b"

"If wrath embitter the sweet mouth of song,     And make the sunlight fire before those eyes     That would drink draughts of peace from the unso"

"Fourscore years and seven     Light and dew from heaven     Have fallen with dawn on these glad woods each day     Since here was born, even he"

"For the seven times seventh time love would renew the delight without end or alloy     That it takes in the praise as it takes in the presence of"

"The sea swings owre the slants of sand,     All white with winds that drive;     The sea swirls up to the still dim strand,     Where nae man c"

"If the rose of all flowers be the rarest     That heaven may adore from above,     And the fervent moss-rose be the fairest     That sweetens t"

"Broad-based, broad-fronted, bounteous, multiform,     With many a valley impleached with ivy and vine,     Wherein the springs of all the stream"

"Sea, and bright wind, and heaven of ardent air,     More dear than all things earth-born; O to me     Mother more dear than love's own longing,"

"High priest of Homer, not elect in vain,     Deep trumpets blow before thee, shawms behind     Mix music with the rolling wheels that wind"

"Sea to sea that clasps and fosters England, uttering ever-more     Song eterne and praise immortal of the indomitable shore,     Lifts aloud her"

"1     The trumpets of the four winds of the world     From the ends of the earth blow battle; the night heaves,     With breasts palpitating and w"

"I.     LOHENGRIN     Love, out of the depth of things,     As a dewfall felt from above,     From the heaven whence only springs     Love,"

"As the dawn loves the sunlight I love thee;     As men that shall be swallowed of the sea     Love the seas lovely beauty; as the night"

"Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover     Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading:     Earth lies laughing where the sun's dart clove her:"

"Ad generem Cereris sine cde et vulnere pauci     Descendunt reges, aut sicc morte tyranni.     By no dry death another king goes down     T"

"Men of Eleusis, ye that with long staves     Sit in the market-houses, and speak words     Made sweet with wisdom as the rare wine is     Thick"

"Hew hard the marble from the mountains heart     Where hardest night holds fast in iron gloom     Gems brighter than an April dawn in bloom,"

"Sweet for a little even to fear, and sweet,     O love, to lay down fear at loves fair feet;     Shall not some fiery memory of his breath"

"Send but a song oversea for us,     Heart of their hearts who are free,     Heart of their singer, to be for us     More than our singing can b"

"Here, where the world is quiet;     Here, where all trouble seems     Dead winds and spent waves riot     In doubtful dreams of dreams;"

"The sea is at ebb, and the sound of her utmost word     Is soft as the least waves lapse in a still small reach.     From bay into bay, on ques"

"I     Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour of winter had passed out of sight,     The ways of the woodlands were fair"

"Death, I would plead against thy wrong,     Who hast reft me of my love, my wife,     And art not satiate yet with strife,     But needs wilt h"

"Shall England consummate the crime     That binds the murderer's hand, and leaves     No surety for the trust of thieves?     Time pleads again"

"Summer's face was rosiest, skies and woods were mellow,     Earth had heaven to friend, and heaven had earth to fellow,     When we met where wo"

"Mais o sont les neiges dantan?     What shall be said between us here     Among the downs, between the trees,     In fields that knew our feet"

"Attempted in English verse after the original metre.     I was allured into the audacity of this experiment by consideration of a fact which hit"

"Sweet life, if life were stronger,     Earth clear of years that wrong her,     Then two things might live longer,     Two sweeter things than"

"O weary fa' the east wind,     And weary fa' the west:     And gin I were under the wan waves wide     I wot weel wad I rest.     O weary fa'"

"Under green apple-boughs     That never a storm will rouse,     My lady hath her house     Between two bowers;     In either of the twain"

"I.     A baby shines as bright     If winter or if May be     On eyes that keep in sight     A baby.     Though dark the skies or grey be,"

"I.     Love, loyallest and lordliest born of things,     Immortal that shouldst be, though all else end,     In plighted hearts of fearless friend"

"Between the moondawn and the sundown here     The twilight hangs half starless; half the sea     Still quivers as for love or pain or fear"

"I     Queen born of the sea, that hast borne her     The mightiest of seamen on earth,     Bright England, whose glories adorn her     And bid her"

"When I had wings, my brother,     Such wings were mine as thine:     Such life my heart remembers     In all as wild Septembers     As this wh"

"I.     Three months bade wane and wax the wintering moon     Between two dates of death, while men were fain     Yet of the living light that all"

"TO THEODORE WATTS I.     The heavenly bay, ringed round with cliffs and moors,     Storm-stained ravines, and crags that lawns inlay,"

"Sark, fairer than aught in the world that the lit skies cover,     Laughs inly behind her cliffs, and the seafarers mark     As a shrine where t"

"1869-1891     Auvergne, Auvergne, O wild and woful land,     O glorious land and gracious, white as gleam     The stairs of heaven, black as a"

"I     Light and night, whose clouds and glories change and mingle and divide,     Veil the truth whereof they witness, show the truth of things they"

"O heart of hearts, the chalice of loves fire,     Hid round with flowers and all the bounty of bloom;     O wonderful and perfect heart, for wh"

"Men, whose fathers braved the world in arms against our isles in union,     Men, whose brothers met rebellion face to face,     Show the hearts"

"I.     Seven white roses on one tree,     Seven white loaves of blameless leaven,     Seven white sails on one soft sea,     Seven white swans on"

"Over two shadowless waters, adrift as a pinnace in peril,     Hangs as in heavy suspense, charged with irresolute light,     Softly the soul of"

"I     Eight hundred years and twenty-one     Have shone and sunken since the land     Whose name is freedom bore such brand     As marks a captive"

"I     Art thou indeed among these,     Thou of the tyrannous crew,     The kingdoms fed upon blood,     O queen from of old of the seas,     Engl"

"On the Eightieth Anniversary of his Birth,     High thought and hallowed love, by faith made one,     Begat and bare the sweet strong-hearted c"

"High beyond the granite portal arched across     Like the gateway of some godlike giants hold     Sweep and swell the billowy breasts of moor a"

"Come close and see her and hearken. This is she.     Stop the ways fast against the stench that nips     Your nostril as it nears her. Lo, the l"

"I.     One of twain, twin-born with flowers that waken,     Now hath passed from sense of sun and rain:     Wind from off the flower-crowned branc"

"In the greenest growth of the Maytime,     I rode where the woods were wet,     Between the dawn and the daytime;     The spring was glad that"

"After reading Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia in the garden of an old English manor house I     A star in the silence that follows     The song of"

"For the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Foundation of the College I     Four hundred summers and fifty have shone on the meadows"

"Song for the Centenary of Walter Savage Landor     Born January 30th, 1775     Died September 17th, 1864     There is delight in singing, th"

"A sea-mew on a sea-king's wrist alighting,     As the north sea-wind caught and strained and curled     The raven-figured flag that led men figh"

"Love, that is first and last of all things made,     The light that has the living world for shade,     The spirit that for temporal veil has on"

"Till death have broken     Sweet lifes love-token,     Till all be spoken     That shall be said,     What dost thou praying,     O soul, an"