We keep our trust tho’ all things fail us —
Tho’ Time nor baffled Hope avail us,
We keep our faith — God liveth and is love.
Not one groan rises there
Tho’ choked in dungeon air
But He has heard it though no thunders more —
And though no help is here,
No royal oath, no Austrian lie,
But echoes in the listening sky;
We know not, yet perchance His wide reply
is near.
Ah, let no sloth delay,
No discord mar its way,
Keep wide the entrance for that Hope divine;
Truth never wanted swords,
Since with his swordlike words
Savonarola smote the Florentine.
Even here she is not weaponless, but waits
Silent at the palace gates,
Her wide eyes kindling eastward to the far sun-
shine.
When out of Naples came a tortured voice:
Whereat the whole earth shuddered, and
forbade
The murderous smile on lying lips to fade;
The murderous heart in silence to rejoice;
She also smiled — no royal smile — as knowing
Some stains of sloth washed by the blood then
flowing;
Their lives went out in darkness — not in
vain;
Earth cannot hear, and sink to bloodless rest
again.
And if indeed her waking strength shall
prove
Worthy the dreams that passing lit her
sleep,
Who then shall lift such eyes of triumph, who
Respond with echoes of a louder love
Than Cromwell’s England? let fresh praise
renew
The wan brow’s withered laurels with its dew,
And one triumphal peace the crownèd earth
shall keep.
XIV
As one who dreaming on some cloud-white peak
Hears the loud wind sail past him far and
free,
And the faint music of the misty sea,
Listening till all his life reels blind and weak;
So discrownèd Italy
With the world’s hope in her hands
Ever yearning to get free,
Silent between the past and future stands.
Dim grows the past, and dull,
All that was beautiful,
As scattered stars drawn down the moonless
night:
And the blind eyes of Scorn
Are smitten by strange morn,
And many-thronèd treason wastes before its
might:
And every sunless cave
And time-forgotten grave
Is pierced with one intolerable light
Not one can Falsehood save
Of all the crowns she gave,
But the dead years renew their old delight
The worshipped evil wanes
Through all its godless fanes,
And falters from its long imperial height,
As the last altar-flame
Dies with a glorious nation’s dying shame.
XV
And when that final triumph-time shall be,
Whose memory shall be kept
First of the souls that slept
In death ere light was on their Italy?
Or which of men more dear than thee
To equal-thoughted liberty,
Whom here on earth such reverence meets.
Such love from Heaven’s pure children greets
As few dare win among the free!
Such honour ever follows thee
In peril, banishment, and blame,
And all the loud blind world calls shame,
Lives, and shall live, thy glorious name,
Tho’ death, that scorns the robèd slave,
Embrace thee, and a chainless grave.
While thou livest, there is one
Free in soul beneath the Sun:
And thine out-laboured heart shall be
In death more honoured — not more free.
XVI
And men despond around thee; and thy name
The tyrant smiles at, and his priests look
pale;
And weariness of empty-throated fame,
And men who live and fear all things but shame,
Comes on thee; and the weight of aimless
years
Whose light is dim with tears:
And hope dies out like a forgotten tale.
O brother, crownèd among men — O chief
In glory as in grief I
O throned by sorrow over time and fate
And the blind strength of hatel
From soul to answering soul
The thunder-echoes roll,
And truth grows out of suffering still and great
To have done well is victory, — to be true
Is truest guerdon, though blind hands undo
The work begun too late.
God gives to each man power by toil to earn
An undishonoured grave:
The praise that lives on every name in turn
He leaves the laurelled slave.
We die, but freedom dies not like the power
That changes with the many-sided hour.
Though trampled under the brute hoofs of
crime,
She sees thro’ tears and blood,
Above the stars and in the night of time,
The sleepless watch of God;
Past fear and pain and errors wide and strange
The veil’d years leading wingless-footed
Change;
Endure, and they shall give
Truth and the law whereby men work and lire.
XVII
From Ischia to the loneliest Apennine
Time’s awful voice is blown;
And from her clouded throne
Freedom looks out and knows herself divine.
From walls that keep in shame
Poerio’s martyr-name,
From wild rocks foul with children’s blood, it rings;
Their murderers gaze aghast
Through all the hideous past,
And fate is heavy on the souls of kings.
No more their hateful sway
Pollutes the equal day,
Nor stricken truth pales under its wide wings,
Even when the awakened people speaks in
wrath,
Wrong shall not answer wrong with blind
impatience;
The bloody slime upon that royal path
Makes slippery standing for the feet of
nations.
Our freedom’s bridal robe no wrong shall stain,
No lie shall taint her speech:
But equal knowledge shall be born of pain,
And wisdom shaping each.
True leaders shall be with us, nobler laws
Shall guide us calmly to the final Cause:
And thou, earth’s crownless queen,
No more shalt wail unseen,
But front the weary ages without pain:
Time shall bring back for thee
The hopes that lead the free,
And thy name fill the charmèd world again.
The shame that stains thy brow
Shall not for ever mark thee to fresh fears:
For in the far light of the buried years
Shines the undarkened future that shall be
A dawn o’er sunless ages. Hearest thou,
Italia? tho’ deaf sloth hath sealed thine ears,
The world has heard thy children — and God
hears.
THE GHOST OF IT
IN my poems, with ravishing rapture,
Storm strikes me, and strokes me, and stings;
But I’m scarcely the bird you might capture
I prefer to be well out of harm’s way,
When tempest makes tremble the tree,
And the wind with armipotent arm-sway
Makes soap of the sea.
Hanging hard on the rent rags of others
Who before me did better, I try
To believe them my sisters and brothers,
Though I know what a low lot am I.
Truth dawns on time’s resonant ruin
Frank, fulminant, fragrant and free,
And apparently this is the doing
Of wind on the sea.
Fame flutters in front of pretension
Whose flag-staff is flagrantly fine,
And it cannot be needful to mention
That such beyond question is mine.
It’s plain as a newspaper leader
That a rhymester who scribbles like me
May feel perfectly sure that his reader
Is sick of the sea.
I canna stand to walk, mither,
But I’m just like to die,
And wae be to your bonny bloodhound
That bit me by the knee.
The Poems
Swinburne attended Eton College from 1849–53 and it was here that he started writing poetry.
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
ATALANTA IN CALYDON
A BALLAD OF LIFE
A BALLAD OF DEATH
LAUS VENERIS
PHÆDRA
THE TRIUMPH OF TIME
LES NOYADES
A LEAVE-TAKING
ITYLUS
ANACTORIA
HYMN TO PROSERPINE
ILICET
HERMAPHRODITUS
FRAGOLETTA
RONDEL
SATIA TE SANGUINE
A LITANY
A LAMENTATION
ANIMA ANCEPS
IN THE ORCHARD
A MATCH
FAUSTINE
A CAMEO
SONG BEFORE DEATH
ROCOCO
STAGE LOVE
THE LEPER
A BALLAD OF BURDENS
RONDEL
BEFORE THE MIRROR
EROTION
IN MEMORY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
A SONG IN TIME OF ORDER. 1852
A SONG IN TIME OF REVOLUTION. 1860
TO VICTOR HUGO
BEFORE DAWN
DOLORES
THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE
HESPERIA
LOVE AT SEA
APRIL
BEFORE PARTING
THE SUNDEW
FÉLISE
AN INTERLUDE
HENDECASYLLABICS
SAPPHICS
AT ELEUSIS
AUGUST
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
THE MASQUE OF QUEEN BERSABE
ST. DOROTHY
THE TWO DREAMS
AHOLIBAH
LOVE AND SLEEP
MADONNA MIA
THE KING’S DAUGHTER
AFTER DEATH
MAY JANET
THE BLOODY SON
THE SEA-SWALLOWS
THE YEAR OF LOVE
DEDICATION, 1865
DIRAE I
A SONG OF ITALY
ODE ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
DIRAE II
DEDICATION TO JOSEPH MAZZINI
PRELUDE
THE EVE OF REVOLUTION
A WATCH IN THE NIGHT
SUPER FLUMINA BABYLONIS
THE HALT BEFORE ROME — SEPTEMBER 1867
MENTANA: FIRST ANNIVERSARY
BLESSED AMONG WOMEN — TO THE SIGNORA CAIROLI
THE LITANY OF NATIONS
HERTHA
BEFORE A CRUCIFIX
TENEBRAE
HYMN OF MAN (DURING THE SESSION IN ROME OF THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL)
THE PILGRIMS
ARMAND BARBES
QUIA MULTUM AMAVIT
GENESIS
TO WALT WHITMAN IN AMERICA
CHRISTMAS ANTIPHONES
A NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE TO JOSEPH MAZZINI
MATER DOLOROSA
MATER TRIUMPHALIS
A MARCHING SONG
SIENA
COR CORDIUM
IN SAN LORENZO
TIRESIAS
THE SONG OF THE STANDARD
ON THE DOWNS
MESSIDOR
ODE ON THE INSURRECTION IN CANDIA
NON DOLET
EURYDICE TO VICTOR HUGO
AN APPEAL
PERINDE AC CADAVER
MONOTONES
THE OBLATION
A YEAR’S BURDEN — 1870
EPILOGUE
ERECHTHEUS
THE LAST ORACLE
IN THE BAY
A FORSAKEN GARDEN
RELICS
AT A MONTH’S END
SESTINA
THE YEAR OF THE ROSE
A WASTED VIGIL
THE COMPLAINT OF LISA
FOR THE FEAST OF GIORDANO BRUNO, PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR
AVE ATQUE VALE
MEMORIAL VERSES ON THE DEATH OF THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
SONNET (WITH A COPY OF MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN)
AGE AND SONG
IN MEMORY OF BARRY CORNWALL
EPICEDE
TO VICTOR HUGO
INFERIAE
A BIRTHSONG
EXVOTO
A BALLAD OF DREAMLAND
CYRIL TOURNEUR
A BALLAD OF FRANÇOIS VILLON
PASTICHE
BEFORE SUNSET
SONG: LOVE LAID HIS SLEEPLESS HEAD
A VISION OF SPRING IN WINTER
CHORIAMBICS
AT PARTING
A SONG IN SEASON
TWO LEADERS
VICTOR HUGO IN 1877
CHILD’S SONG
TRIADS
FOUR SONGS OF FOUR SEASONS
WINTER IN NORTHUMBERLAND
SPRING IN TUSCANY
SUMMER IN AUVERGNE
AUTUMN IN CORNWALL
THE WHITE CZAR
RIZPAH
TO LOUIS KOSSUTH
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FRENCH OF VILLON
THE COMPLAINT OF THE FAIR ARMOURESS
A DOUBLE BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL
FRAGMENT ON DEATH
BALLAD OF THE LORDS OF OLD TIME
BALLAD OF THE WOMEN OF PARIS
BALLAD WRITTEN FOR A BRIDEGROOM
BALLAD AGAINST THE ENEMIES OF FRANCE
THE DISPUTE OF THE HEART AND BODY OF FRANÇOIS VILLON
EPISTLE IN FORM OF A BALLAD TO HIS FRIENDS
THE EPITAPH IN FORM OF A BALLAD
FROM VICTOR HUGO
NOCTURNE
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER
ODE (LE TOMBEAU DE THÉOPHILE GAUTIER)
IN OBITUM THEOPHILI POETÆ
AD CATULLUM
DEDICATION, 1878
MARCH: AN ODE
THE COMMONWEAL
THE ARMADA
TO A SEAMEW
PAN AND THALASSIUS
A BALLAD OF BATH
IN A GARDEN
A RHYME
BABY-BIRD
OLIVE
A WORD WITH THE WIND
NEAP-TIDE
BY THE WAYSIDE
NIGHT
IN TIME OF MOURNING
THE INTERPRETERS
THE RECALL
BY TWILIGHT
A BABY’S EPITAPH
ON THE DEATH OF SIR HENRY TAYLOR
IN MEMORY OF JOHN WILLIAM INCHBOLD
NEW YEAR’S DAY
TO SIR RICHARD F. BURTON
NELL GWYN
CALIBAN ON ARIEL
THE WEARY WEDDING
THE WINDS
A LYKE-WAKE SONG
A REIVER’S NECK-VERSE
THE WITCH-MOTHER
THE BRIDE’S TRAGEDY
A JACOBITE’S FAREWELL
A JACOBITE’S EXILE
THE TYNESIDE WIDOW
DED
ICATION
DEDICATION TO EDWARD JOHN TRELAWNY
THALASSIUS
ON THE CLIFFS
THE GARDEN OF CYMODOCE
BIRTHDAY ODE FOR THE ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL OF VICTOR HUGO, FEBRUARY 26, 1880
SONG FOR THE CENTENARY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
DEDICATION TO MRS. LYNN LINTON.
SONG FOR THE CENTENARY OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.
GRAND CHORUS OF BIRDS FROM ARISTOPHANES
THE BIRDS.
OFF SHORE.
AFTER NINE YEARS.
FOR A PORTRAIT OF FELICE ORSINI.
EVENING ON THE BROADS.
THE EMPEROR’S PROGRESS.
THE RESURRECTION OF ALCILIA.
THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY.
LAUNCH OF THE LIVADIA
THE LAUNCH OF THE LIVADIA.
SIX YEARS OLD.
A PARTING SONG.
BY THE NORTH SEA
ATHENS AN ODE
THE STATUE OF VICTOR HUGO
EUTHANATOS
FIRST AND LAST
LINES ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD JOHN TRELAWNY
ADIEUX À MARIE STUART
HERSE
TWINS
POSTSCRIPT
THE SALT OF THE EARTH
SEVEN YEARS OLD
EIGHT YEARS OLD
COMPARISONS
WHAT IS DEATH?
A CHILD’S PITY
A CHILD’S LAUGHTER
A CHILD’S THANKS
A CHILD’S BATTLES
A CHILD’S FUTURE
DARK MONTH
SUNRISE
PRELUDE
THE SAILING OF THE SWALLOW
THE QUEEN’S PLEASANCE
TRISTRAM IN BRITTANY
THE MAIDEN MARRIAGE
ISEULT AT TINTAGEL
JOYOUS GARD
THE WIFE’S VIGIL
THE LAST PILGRIMAGE
THE SAILING OF THE SWAN
HOPE AND FEAR
AFTER SUNSET
A STUDY FROM MEMORY
TO DR. JOHN BROWN
TO WILLIAM BELL SCOTT
A DEATH ON EASTER DAY
ON THE DEATHS OF THOMAS CARLYLE AND GEORGE ELIOT
AFTER LOOKING INTO CARLYLE’S REMINISCENCES
A LAST LOOK
DICKENS
ON LAMB’S SPECIMENS OF DRAMATIC POETS
TO JOHN NICHOL
DYSTHANATOS
EUONYMOS
ON THE RUSSIAN PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
BISMARCK AT CANOSSA
QUIA NOMINOR LEO
THE CHANNEL TUNNEL
SIR WILLIAM GOMM
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
BEN JONSON
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER
PHILIP MASSINGER
JOHN FORD
JOHN WEBSTER
THOMAS DECKER
THOMAS MIDDLETON
THOMAS HEYWOOD
GEORGE CHAPMAN
JOHN MARSTON
JOHN DAY
JAMES SHIRLEY
THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN
ANONYMOUS PLAYS:”ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM”
ANONYMOUS PLAYS
ANONYMOUS PLAYS
THE MANY
Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series) Page 167