Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series)

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

  Were nigh to break.

  It was said to us: “Verily ye are great of heart,

  But ye shall bend;

  Ye are bondmen and bondwomen, to be scourged and smart,

  To toil and tend.”

  And with harrows men harrowed us, and subdued with spears,

  And crushed with shame;

  And the summer and winter was, and the length of years,

  And no change came.

  By the rivers of Italy, by the sacred streams,

  By town, by tower,

  There was feasting with revelling, there was sleep with dreams,

  Until thine hour.

  And they slept and they rioted on their rose-hung beds,

  With mouths on flame,

  And with love-locks vine-chapleted, and with rose-crowned heads

  And robes of shame.

  And they knew not their forefathers, nor the hills and streams

  And words of power,

  Nor the gods that were good to them, but with songs and dreams

  Filled up their hour.

  By the rivers of Italy, by the dry streams’ beds,

  When thy time came,

  There was casting of crowns from them, from their young men’s heads,

  The crowns of shame.

  By the horn of Eridanus, by the Tiber mouth,

  As thy day rose,

  They arose up and girded them to the north and south,

  By seas, by snows.

  As a water in January the frost confines,

  Thy kings bound thee;

  As a water in April is, in the new-blown vines,

  Thy sons made free.

  And thy lovers that looked for thee, and that mourned from far,

  For thy sake dead,

  We rejoiced in the light of thee, in the signal star

  Above thine head.

  In thy grief had we followed thee, in thy passion loved,

  Loved in thy loss;

  In thy shame we stood fast to thee, with thy pangs were moved,

  Clung to thy cross.

  By the hillside of Calvary we beheld thy blood,

  Thy bloodred tears,

  As a mother’s in bitterness, an unebbing flood,

  Years upon years.

  And the north was Gethsemane, without leaf or bloom,

  A garden sealed;

  And the south was Aceldama, for a sanguine fume

  Hid all the field.

  By the stone of the sepulchre we returned to weep,

  From far, from prison;

  And the guards by it keeping it we beheld asleep,

  But thou wast risen.

  And an angel’s similitude by the unsealed grave,

  And by the stone:

  And the voice was angelical, to whose words God gave

  Strength like his own.

  “Lo, the graveclothes of Italy that are folded up

  In the grave’s gloom!

  And the guards as men wrought upon with a charmed cup,

  By the open tomb.

  “And her body most beautiful, and her shining head,

  These are not here;

  For your mother, for Italy, is not surely dead:

  Have ye no fear.

  “As of old time she spake to you, and you hardly heard,

  Hardly took heed,

  So now also she saith to you, yet another word,

  Who is risen indeed.

  “By my saying she saith to you, in your ears she saith,

  Who hear these things,

  Put no trust in men’s royalties, nor in great men’s breath,

  Nor words of kings.

  “For the life of them vanishes and is no more seen,

  Nor no more known;

  Nor shall any remember him if a crown hath been,

  Or where a throne.

  “Unto each man his handiwork, unto each his crown,

  The just Fate gives;

  Whoso takes the world’s life on him and his own lays down,

  He, dying so, lives.

  “Whoso bears the whole heaviness of the wronged world’s weight

  And puts it by,

  It is well with him suffering, though he face man’s fate;

  How should he die?

  “Seeing death has no part in him any more, no power

  Upon his head;

  He has bought his eternity with a little hour,

  And is not dead.

  “For an hour, if ye look for him, he is no more found,

  For one hour’s space;

  Then ye lift up your eyes to him and behold him crowned,

  A deathless face.

  “On the mountains of memory, by the world’s wellsprings,

  In all men’s eyes,

  Where the light of the life of him is on all past things,

  Death only dies.

  “Not the light that was quenched for us, nor the deeds that were,

  Nor the ancient days,

  Nor the sorrows not sorrowful, nor the face most fair

  Of perfect praise.”

  So the angel of Italy’s resurrection said,

  So yet he saith;

  So the son of her suffering, that from breasts nigh dead

  Drew life, not death.

  That the pavement of Golgotha should be white as snow,

  Not red, but white;

  That the waters of Babylon should no longer flow,

  And men see light.

  THE HALT BEFORE ROME — SEPTEMBER 1867

  Is it so, that the sword is broken,

  Our sword, that was halfway drawn?

  Is it so, that the light was a spark,

  That the bird we hailed as the lark

  Sang in her sleep in the dark,

  And the song we took for a token

  Bore false witness of dawn?

  Spread in the sight of the lion,

  Surely, we said, is the net

  Spread but in vain, and the snare

  Vain; for the light is aware,

  And the common, the chainless air,

  Of his coming whom all we cry on;

  Surely in vain is it set.

  Surely the day is on our side,

  And heaven, and the sacred sun;

  Surely the stars, and the bright

  Immemorial inscrutable night:

  Yea, the darkness, because of our light,

  Is no darkness, but blooms as a bower-side

  When the winter is over and done;

  Blooms underfoot with young grasses

  Green, and with leaves overhead,

  Windflowers white, and the low

  New-dropped blossoms of snow;

  And or ever the May winds blow,

  And or ever the March wind passes,

  Flames with anemones red.

  We are here in the world’s bower-garden,

  We that have watched out the snow.

  Surely the fruitfuller showers,

  The splendider sunbeams are ours;

  Shall winter return on the flowers,

  And the frost after April harden,

  And the fountains in May not flow?

  We have in our hands the shining

  And the fire in our hearts of a star.

  Who are we that our tongues should palter,

  Hearts bow down, hands falter,

  Who are clothed as with flame from the altar,

  That the kings of the earth, repining,

  Far off, watch from afar?

  Woe is ours if we doubt or dissemble,

  Woe, if our hearts not abide.

  Are our chiefs not among us, we said,

  Great chiefs, living and dead,

  To lead us glad to be led?

  For whose sake, if a man of us tremble,

  He shall not be on our side.

  What matter if these lands tarry,

  That tarried (we said) not of old?

  France, made drunken by fate,

  England, that bore up the weight />
  Once of men’s freedom, a freight

  Holy, but heavy to carry

  For hands overflowing with gold.

  Though this be lame, and the other

  Fleet, but blind from the sun,

  And the race be no more to these,

  Alas! nor the palm to seize,

  Who are weary and hungry of ease,

  Yet, O Freedom, we said, O our mother,

  Is there not left to thee one?

  Is there not left of thy daughters,

  Is there not one to thine hand?

  Fairer than these, and of fame

  Higher from of old by her name;

  Washed in her tears, and in flame

  Bathed as in baptism of waters,

  Unto all men a chosen land.

  Her hope in her heart was broken,

  Fire was upon her, and clomb,

  Hiding her, high as her head;

  And the world went past her, and said

  (We heard it say) she was dead;

  And now, behold, she bath spoken,

  She that was dead, saying, “Rome.”

  O mother of all men’s nations,

  Thou knowest if the deaf world heard!

  Heard not now to her lowest

  Depths, where the strong blood slowest

  Beats at her bosom, thou knowest,

  In her toils, in her dim tribulations,

  Rejoiced not, hearing the word.

  The sorrowful, bound unto sorrow,

  The woe-worn people, and all

  That of old were discomforted,

  And men that famish for bread,

  And men that mourn for their dead,

  She bade them be glad on the morrow,

  Who endured in the day of her thrall.

  The blind, and the people in prison,

  Souls without hope, without home,

  How glad were they all that heard!

  When the winged white flame of the word

  Passed over men’s dust, and stirred

  Death; for Italia was risen,

  And risen her light upon Rome.

  The light of her sword in the gateway

  Shone, an unquenchable flame,

  Bloodless, a sword to release,

  A light from the eyes of peace,

  To bid grief utterly cease,

  And the wrong of the old world straightway

  Pass from the face of her fame:

  Hers, whom we turn to and cry on,

  Italy, mother of men:

  From the light of the face of her glory,

  At the sound of the storm of her story,

  That the sanguine shadows and hoary

  Should flee from the foot of the lion,

  Lion-like, forth of his den.

  As the answering of thunder to thunder

  Is the storm-beaten sound of her past;

  As the calling of sea unto sea

  Is the noise of her years yet to be;

  For this ye knew not is she,

  Whose bonds are broken in sunder;

  This is she at the last.

  So spake we aloud, high-minded,

  Full of our will; and behold,

  The speech that was halfway spoken

  Breaks, as a pledge that is broken,

  As a king’s pledge, leaving in token

  Grief only for high hopes blinded,

  New grief grafted on old.

  We halt by the walls of the city,

  Within sound of the clash of her chain.

  Hearing, we know that in there

  The lioness chafes in her lair,

  Shakes the storm of her hair,

  Struggles in hands without pity,

  Roars to the lion in vain.

  Whose hand is stretched forth upon her?

  Whose curb is white with her foam?

  Clothed with the cloud of his deeds,

  Swathed in the shroud of his creeds,

  Who is this that has trapped her and leads,

  Who turns to despair and dishonour

  Her name, her name that was Rome?

  Over fields without harvest or culture,

  Over hordes without honour or love,

  Over nations that groan with their kings,

  As an imminent pestilence flings

  Swift death from her shadowing wings,

  So he, who hath claws as a vulture,

  Plumage and beak as a dove.

  He saith, “I am pilot and haven,

  Light and redemption I am

  Unto souls overlaboured,” he saith;

  And to all men the blast of his breath

  Is a savour of death unto death;

  And the Dove of his worship a raven,

  And a wolf-cub the life-giving Lamb.

  He calls his sheep as a shepherd,

  Calls from the wilderness home,

  “Come unto me and be fed,”

  To feed them with ashes for bread

  And grass from the graves of the dead,

  Leaps on the fold as a leopard,

  Slays, and says, “I am Rome,”

  Rome, having rent her in sunder,

  With the clasp of an adder he clasps;

  Swift to shed blood are his feet,

  And his lips, that have man for their meat,

  Smoother than oil, and more sweet

  Than honey, but hidden thereunder

  Festers the poison of asps.

  As swords are his tender mercies,

  His kisses as mortal stings;

  Under his hallowing hands

  Life dies down in all lands;

  Kings pray to him, prone where he stands,

  And his blessings, as other men’s curses,

  Disanoint where they consecrate kings.

  With an oil of unclean consecration,

  With effusion of blood and of tears,

  With uplifting of cross and of keys,

  Priest, though thou hallow us these,

  Yet even as they cling to thy knees

  Nation awakens by nation,

  King by king disappears.

  How shall the spirit be loyal

  To the shell of a spiritless thing?

  Erred once, in only a word,

  The sweet great song that we heard

  Poured upon Tuscany, erred,

  Calling a crowned man royal

  That was no more than a king.

  Sea-eagle of English feather,

  A song-bird beautiful-souled,

  She knew not them that she sang;

  The golden trumpet that rang

  From Florence, in vain for them, sprang

  As a note in the nightingales’ weather

  Far over Fiesole rolled.

  She saw not — happy, not seeing -

  Saw not as we with her eyes

  Aspromonte; she felt

  Never the heart in her melt

  As in us when the news was dealt

  Melted all hope out of being,

  Dropped all dawn from the skies.

  In that weary funereal season,

  In that heart-stricken grief-ridden time,

  The weight of a king and the worth,

  With anger and sorrowful mirth,

  We weighed in the balance of earth,

  And light was his word as a treason,

  And heavy his crown as a crime.

  Banners of kings shall ye follow

  None, and have thrones on your side

  None; ye shall gather and grow

  Silently, row upon row,

  Chosen of Freedom to go

  Gladly where darkness may swallow,

  Gladly where death may divide.

  Have we not men with us royal,

  Men the masters of things?

  In the days when our life is made new,

  All souls perfect and true

  Shall adore whom their forefathers slew;

  And these indeed shall be loyal,

  And those indeed shall be kings.


  Yet for a space they abide with us,

  Yet for a little they stand,

  Bearing the heat of the day.

  When their presence is taken away,

  We shall wonder and worship, and say,

  “Was not a star on our side with us?

  Was not a God at our hand?”

  These, O men, shall ye honour,

  Liberty only, and these.

  For thy sake and for all men’s and mine,

  Brother, the crowns of them shine

  Lighting the way to her shrine,

  That our eyes may be fastened upon her,

  That our hands may encompass her knees.

  In this day is the sign of her shown to you;

  Choose ye, to live or to die,

  Now is her harvest in hand;

  Now is her light in the land;

  Choose ye, to sink or to stand,

  For the might of her strength is made known to you

  Now, and her arm is on high.

  Serve not for any man’s wages,

  Pleasure nor glory nor gold;

  Not by her side are they won

  Who saith unto each of you, “Son,

  Silver and gold have I none;

  I give but the love of all ages,

  And the life of my people of old.”

  Fear not for any man’s terrors;

  Wait not for any man’s word;

  Patiently, each in his place,

  Gird up your loins to the race;

  Following the print of her pace,

  Purged of desires and of errors,

  March to the tune ye have heard.

  March to the tune of the voice of her,

  Breathing the balm of her breath,

  Loving the light of her skies.

  Blessed is he on whose eyes

  Dawns but her light as he dies;

  Blessed are ye that make choice of her,

  Equal to life and to death.

  Ye that when faith is nigh frozen,

  Ye that when hope is nigh gone,

  Still, over wastes, over waves,

  Still, among wrecks, among graves,