Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburnewas an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. A controversial figure at the time, Swinburne was a sado-masochist and alcoholic and was obsessed with the Middle Ages and lesbianism...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth5 April 1837
dream laughter flower
I am tired of tears and laughter, And men that laugh and weep Of what may come hereafter For men that sow to reap: I am weary of days and hours, Blown buds of barren flowers, Desires and dreams and powers And everything but sleep.
stars sleep night
Then star nor sun shall waken, Nor any change of light: Nor sound of waters shaken, Nor any sound or sight: Nor wintry leaves nor vernal; Nor days nor things diurnal; Only the sleep eternal In an eternal night.
time grief men
Before the beginning of years There came to the making of man Time with a gift of tears, Grief with a glass that ran .
time love-is dust
For the crown of our life as it closes Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust; No thorns go as deep as a rose's, And love is more cruel than lust. Time turns the old days to derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage and death and division Make barren our lives.
hope speak blind
Hope knows not if fear speaks truth, nor fear whether hope be blind as she.
life weather rose
If love were what the rose is, And I were like the leaf, Our lives would grow together In sad or singing weather.
life hands way
Our way is where God knows And Love knows where: We are in Love's hand to-day.
life spring drinking
We, drinking love at the furthest springs, Covered with love as a covering tree, We had grown as gods, as the gods above, Filled from the heart to the lips with love, Held fast in his hands, clothed warm with his wings, O love, my love, had you loved but me!
life men sea
The loves and hours of the life of a man, They are swift and sad, being born of the sea.
love life butterfly
Love, as is told by the seers of old, Comes as a butterfly tipped with gold, Flutters and flies in sunlit skies, Weaving round hearts that were one time cold.
life heart tears
O Love, O great god Love, what have I done, That thou shouldst hunger so after my death? My heart is harmless as my life's first day: Seek out some false fair woman, and plague her Till her tears even as my tears fill her bed.
life eye rose
Love laid his sleepless head On a thorny rose bed: And his eyes with tears were red, And pale his lips as the dead.
life sweet love-you
I that have love and no more Give you but love of you, sweet; He that hath more, let him give; He that hath wings, let him soar; Mine is the heart at your feet Here, that must love you to live.
kissing names blame
And the best and the worst of this is That neither is most to blame, If you have forgotten my kisses And I have forgotten your name.