138 Quotes by Algernon Charles Swinburne

And the best and the worst of this isThat neither is most to blame,If you have forgotten my kissesAnd I have forgotten your name.

And a bird overhead sang Follow, And a bird to the right sang Here;And the arch of the leaves was hollow, And the meaning of May was clear.

For the crown of our life as it closesIs darkness, the fruit there of dust;No thorns go as deep as the 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 divisionMake barren our lives.

Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;/ We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death

All the world is bitter as a tear

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.

From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea.

In fierce March weather White waves break tether, And whirled together At either hand, Like weeds uplifted, The tree-trunks rifted In spars are drifted, Like foam or sand.

Time turns the old days to derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage and death and division Make barren our lives.