Astrophel and Other PoemsTaken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon CharlesSwinburne, Vol. VI
The lights that arise and that set:

The love that forgets thee not hearkens

If England forget.

II

Bright and brief in the sight of grief and love the light of thy lifetime shone,

Seen and felt by the gifts it dealt, the grace it gave, and again was gone:

Ay, but now it is death, not thou, whom time has conquered as years pass on.

Ay, not yet may the land forget that bore and loved thee and praised and wept,

Sidney, lord of the stainless sword, the name of names that her heart's love kept

Fast as thine did her own, a sign to light thy life till it sank and slept.

Bright as then for the souls of men thy brave Arcadia resounds and shines,

Lit with love that beholds above all joys and sorrows the steadfast signs,

Faith, a splendour that hope makes tender, and truth, whose presage the soul divines.

All the glory that girds the story of all thy life as with sunlight round,

[Pg 124]

All the spell that on all souls fell who saw thy spirit, and held them bound,

Lives for all that have heard the call and cadence yet of its music sound.

Music bright as the soul of light, for wings an eagle, for notes a dove,

Leaps and shines from the lustrous lines wherethrough thy soul from afar above

Shone and sang till the darkness rang with light whose fire is the fount of love.


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