Astrophel and Other PoemsTaken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon CharlesSwinburne, Vol. VI
Yet they laugh with love and pride to live, subdued not save of thee.

Ears that hear thee hear in heaven the sound of widening wings gigantic,

Eyes that see the cloud-lift westward see thy darkening brows divine;

Wings whose measure is the limit of the limitless Atlantic,

Brows that bend, and bid the sovereign sea submit her soul to thine.

III

Twelve days since is it—twelve days gone,

Lord of storm, that a storm-bow shone

Higher than sweeps thy sublime dark wing,

Fair as dawn is and sweet like spring?

Never dawn in the deep wide east

Spread so splendid and strange a feast,

Whence the soul as it drank and fed

Felt such rapture of wonder shed.

Never spring in the wild wood's heart

Felt such flowers at her footfall start,

Born of earth, as arose on sight

Born of heaven and of storm and light.

[Pg 152]

Stern and sullen, the grey grim sea


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