Songs of the Springtides and Birthday OdeTaken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon CharlesSwinburne—Vol. III
So from somewhence far forth of the unbeholden,

Dreadfully driven from over and after and under,

Fierce, blown through fifes of brazen blast and golden,

With sound of chiming waves that drown the thunder

Or thunder that strikes dumb the sea's own chimes,

Began the bellowing of the bull-voiced mimes,

Terrible; firs bowed down as briars or palms

Even at the breathless blast as of a breeze

Fulfilled with clamour and clangour and storms of psalms;

Red hands rent up the roots of old-world trees,

Thick flames of torches tossed as tumbling seas

Made mad the moonless and infuriate air

That, ravening, revelled in the riotous hair

And raiment of the furred Bassarides.

So came all those in on him; and his heart,

As out of sleep suddenly struck astart,

Danced, and his flesh took fire of theirs, and grief

Was as a last year's leaf

Blown dead far down the wind's way; and he set

His pale mouth to the brightest mouth it met


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