Algernon Charles Swinburne

Death and birth should dwell not near together:
Wealth keeps house not, even for shame, with dearth:
Fate doth ill to link in one brief tether   Death and birth
Harsh the yoke that binds them, strange the

Between the wave-ridge and the strandI let you forth in sight of land, Songs that with storm-crossed wings and eyes Strain eastward till the darkness dies;
Let signs and beacons fall or stand, And stars and balefires set and rise;
Ye, ti...

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ED was she that bare, Hidden in flesh most fair,
For all men’s sake the likeness of all love; Holy that virgin’s womb, The old record saith, on
The glory of God alighted as a dove; Blessed, who brought to gracious...

Dead love, by treason slain, lies stark,
White as a dead stark-stricken dove:
None that pass by him pause to mark   Dead love
His heart, that strained and yearned and

Orpheus, the night is full of tears and cries, And hardly for the storm and ruin shed Can even thine eyes be certain of her
Who never passed out of thy spirit's eyes,
But stood and shone before them in such wise As when with love her lip...

Birth and death, twin-sister and twin-brother,
Night and day, on all things that draw breath,
Reign, while time keeps friends with one another   Birth and death
Each brow-bound with flowers diverse of wreath,

Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour;
The heavy white limbs, and the cruel Red mouth like a venomous flower;
When these are gone by with their glories, What shall rest of thee then, what remain,
O...

'Farewell and adieu' was the burden
Long since in the chant of a home-faring crew;
And the heart in us echoes, with laughing or wailing,  Farewell and adieu
Each year that we live shall we sing it anew,

But now life's face beholden   Seemed bright as heaven's bare
With hope of gifts withholden   But now
From time's full-flowering
Each bud spake bloom to embolden   Love's heart, and seal his vow

The burden of fair women
Vain delight, And love self-slain in some sweet shameful way, And sorrowful old age that comes by night As a thief comes that has no heart by day, And change that finds fair cheeks and leaves them grey, And weariness ...

Three months bade wane and wax the wintering
Between two dates of death, while men were
Yet of the living light that all too soon   Three months bade wane
Cold autumn, wan with wrath of wind and rain,

I — In
Thou whose birth on earth   Angels sang to men,
While thy stars made mirth,
Saviour, at thy birth,   This day born again;