138 Quotes by Algernon Charles Swinburne

In the world of dreams, I have chosen my part. To sleep for a season and hear no word Of true love’s truth or of light love’s art, Only the song of a secret bird.

To say of shame – what is it? Of virtue – we can miss it; Of sin-we can kiss it, And it’s no longer sin.

Fierce midnights and famishing morrows, And the loves that complete and control All the joys of the flesh, all the sorrows That wear out the soul.

A baby’s feet, like sea-shells pink Might tempt, should heaven see meet, An angel’s lips to kiss, we think, A baby’s feet.

And lo, between the sundawn and the sun His day’s work and his night’s work are undone: And lo, between the nightfall and the light, He is not, and none knoweth of such an one.

If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of pain We’d hunt down Love together, Pluck out his flying-feather, And teach his feet a measure, And find his mouth a rein; If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of pain.

Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading: Earth lies laughing where the sun’s dart clove her: Love lies bleeding.

For the crown of our life as it closes Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust; No thorns go as deep as a rose’s, And love is more cruel than lust.

For the crown of our life as it closes Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust; No thorns go as deep as a rose’s, And love is more cruel than lust. Time turns the old days to derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage and death and division Make barren our lives.