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Had I Wist

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

Topics: classic

Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing     Light and loud through sundawn and the dew's bright trust,     How the time should come for hearts to sigh in saying     'Had I wist' -     Surely not the roses, laughing as they kissed,     Not the lovelier laugh of seas in sunshine swaying,     Should have lured my soul to look thereon and list.     Now the wind is like a soul cast out and praying     Vainly, prayers that pierce not ears when hearts resist:     Now mine own soul sighs, adrift as wind and straying,     'Had I wist.'

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"Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing..."

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Author:Algernon Charles Swinburne

"Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing..." by Algernon Charles Swinburne

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Algernon Charles Swinburne

About Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was an English poet known for metrical innovation and bold themes. His "Atalanta in Calydon" and "Poems and Ballads" challenged Victorian conventions with their musical intensity and controversial subject matter.

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