Quotes from Algernon Charles Swinburne

Ah that such sweet things should be fleet,Such fleet things sweet!

I will go back to the great sweet mother,Mother and lover of men, the sea.

Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which.

Hope thou not much, and fear thou not at all.

Glory to Man in the highest! for Man is the master of things.

I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, that love hath an end.

I am that which began;Out of me the years roll;Out of me God and man;I am equal and whole;God changes, and man, and the form of them bodily; I am the soul.

If love were what the rose is,And I were like the leaf,Our lives would grow togetherIn sad or singing weather.

In the gray beginning of years, in the twilight of things that began,The word of the earth in the ears of the world, was it God? was it man?

Change in a triceThe lilies and languors of virtueFor the raptures and roses of vice.

God, whom we see not, is: and God, who is not, we see:Fiddle, we know, is diddle: and diddle, we take it, is dee.

What ailed us, O gods, to desert youFor creeds that refuse and restrain?Come down and redeem us from virtue,Our Lady of Pain.

O sad kissed mouth, how sorrowful it is!

Yet leave me not; yet, if thou wilt, be free; Love me no more, but love my love of thee.

If you were April's lady,And I were lord in May.

For words divide and rend;But silence is most noble till the end.

To have known love, how bitter a thing it is.

Here, where the world is quiet;Here, where all trouble seemsDead winds' and spent waves' riotIn doubtful dreams of dreams.

Poor splendid wings so frayed and soiled and torn!

There will no man do for your sake, I think,What I would have done for the least word said.I had wrung life dry for your lips to drink,Broken it up for your daily bread.

Though one were strong as seven, He too with death shall dwell, Nor wake with wings in heaven, Nor weep for pains in hell;

I will go back to the great sweet mother, Mother and lover of men, the sea. I will go down to her, I and none other, Close with her, kiss her, and mix her with me. Cling to her, strive with her, hold her fast; O fair white mother, in days long passed Born without sister, born without brother, Set free my soul as thy soul is free.

O brother, the gods were good to you. Sleep, and be glad while the world endures. Be well content as the years wear through; Give thanks for life, and the loves and lures; Give thanks for life, O brother, and death, For the sweet last sound of her feet, her breath, For gifts she gave you, gracious and few,Tears and kisses, that lady of yours.

For till the thunder and trumpet be, Soul may divide from body, but not we One from another