Songs of the Springtides and Birthday OdeTaken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon CharlesSwinburne—Vol. III
[Pg 299]

And in the soul within the sense began

The manlike passion of a godlike man,

And in the sense within the soul again

Thoughts that make men of gods and gods of men.

For love the high song taught him: love that turns

God's heart toward man as man's to Godward; love

That life and death and life are fashioned of,

From the first breath that burns

Half kindled on the flowerlike yeanling's lip,

So light and faint that life seems like to slip,

To that yet weaklier drawn

When sunset dies of night's devouring dawn.

But the man dying not wholly as all men dies

If aught be left of his in live men's eyes

Out of the dawnless dark of death to rise;

If aught of deed or word

Be seen for all time or of all time heard.

Love, that though body and soul were overthrown

Should live for love's sake of itself alone,


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