But now life's face beholden
Seemed bright as heaven's bare brow
With hope of gifts withholden
But now.
From time's full-flowering bough
Each bud spake bloom to embolden
Love's heart, and seal his vow.
Joy's eyes grew deep with olden
Dreams, born he wist not how;
Thought's meanest garb was golden;
But now!
More verses by Algernon Charles Swinburne
- John Day: Xiii
- Song Before Death: From The French
- Love At Sea
- Let Us Go
- On The Deaths Of Thomas Carlyle And George Eliot: Sonnets