Algernon Charles Swinburne Quotes
Dream that the lips once breathlessMight quicken if they would;Say that the soul is deathless;Dream that the gods are good;Say March may wed September,And time divorce regret;But not that you remember,And not that I forget.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Quotes to Explore
His speech is a burning fire.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces, The mother of months in meadow or plain Fills the shadows and windy places With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
If love were what the rose is,And I were like the leaf,Our lives would grow togetherIn sad or singing weather,Blown fields or flowerful closes,Green pasture or gray grief;If love were what the rose is,And I were like the leaf.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The more congenial page of some tenth-rate poeticule worn out with failure after failure and now squat in his hole like the tailless fox, he is curled up to snarl and whimper beneath the inaccessible vine of song.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
It is long since Mr. Carlyle expressed his opinion that if any poet or other literary creature could really be 'killed off by one critique' or many, the sooner he was so despatched the better; a sentiment in which I for one humbly but heartily concur.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
In the change of years, in the coil of things, In the clamour and rumour of life to be, We, drinking love at the furthest springs, Covered with love as a covering tree, We had grown as gods, as the gods above, Filled from the heart to the lips with love, Held fast in his hands, clothed warm with his wings, O love, my love, had you loved but me!
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The tadpole poet will never grow into anything bigger than a frog; not though in that stage of development he should puff and blow himself till he bursts with windy adulation at the heels of the laureled ox.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Ah, ah, thy beauty! like a beast it bites,Stings like an adder, like an arrow smites.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Forget that I remember And dream that I forget.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Time found our tired love sleeping,And kissed away his breath;But what should we do weeping,Though light love sleep to death?We have drained his lips at leisure,Till there's not left to drainA single sob of pleasure,A single pulse of pain.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The loves and hours of the life of a man, They are swift and sad, being born of the sea. Hours that rejoice and regret for a span, Born with a man's breath, mortal as he; Loves that are lost ere they come to birth, Weeds of the wave, without fruit upon earth. I lose what I long for, save what I can, My love, my love, and no love for me!
Algernon Charles Swinburne
A crown and justice? Night and day Shall first be yoked together.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
I have no remedy for fear; there growsNo herb of help to heal a coward heart.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Rhyme is the native condition of lyric verse in English; a rhymeless lyric is a maimed thing.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
I can truly say with Shelley I have been fortunate in friendships: that I have been no less fortunate in my enemies than in my friends.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
I believe Not more in God's word than in yours; and this Not for your station's sake, nor yet your fame's, How high soe'er the wind of war have blown The splendour of your standard: but, my lord, Your face and heart and speech, being one, require Of any not base-born and servile-souled Faith: and my faith I give you.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Not from without us, only from within, Comes or can ever come upon us light Whereby the soul keeps ever truth in sight. No truth, no strength, no comfort man may win, No grace for guidance, no release from sin, Save of his own soul's giving.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Dream that the lips once breathlessMight quicken if they would;Say that the soul is deathless;Dream that the gods are good;Say March may wed September,And time divorce regret;But not that you remember,And not that I forget.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
