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Algernon Charles Swinburne Quotes
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Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho , Anactoria , Jesus and Catullus .



Wikipedia  

✵ 5. April 1837 – 10. April 1909
Algernon Charles Swinburne photo
Algernon Charles Swinburne: 87 quotes1 like

Algernon Charles Swinburne Quotes

“Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat,
They stretch and spread and wink
Their ten soft buds that part and meet.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Étude Réaliste.
Undated

“Did I bid thee
Mock, and forget me for thy friend — I say not,
King? Is thy heart so light and lean a thing,
So loose in faith and faint in love? I bade thee
Stand to me, help me, hold my hand in thine
And give my heart back answer. This it is,
Old friend and fool, that gnaws my life in twain —
The worm that writhes and feeds about my heart —
The devil and God are crying in either ear
One murderous word for ever, night and day,
Dark day and deadly night and deadly day,
Can she love thee who slewest her father? I
Love her.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Alboine, Act 1, Scene 1.
Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards (1899)

“Change lays not her hand upon truth.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne Dedication

Dedication.
Undated

“Life is the lust of a lamp for the light that is dark till the dawn of the day that we die.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

"Nephelidia", line 16, from The Heptalogia (1880); Swinburne intended "Nephelidia" as a self-parody.

“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

Under the Microscope (1872)

“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 drain
A single sob of pleasure,
A single pulse of pain.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne book Poems and Ballads

"Rococo", lines 17-24.
Poems and Ballads (1866-89)

“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

First chorus, line 65.
Atalanta in Calydon (1865)

“Fear that makes faith may break faith; and a fool Is but in folly stable.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Queen Mary Stuart as portrayed in Bothwell. Act I. Sc. 3.
Bothwell : A Tragedy (1874)

“The sweetest flowers in all the world—
A baby's hands.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Étude Réaliste.
Undated

“Wilt thou fear that, and fear not my desire?”

Algernon Charles Swinburne book Poems and Ballads

"Anactoria", line 8.
Poems and Ballads (1866-89)

“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.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Laus Veneris.
Undated

“Gone deeper than all plummets sound. {cf. Shak.: I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded… (The Tempest)}”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Félise.
Undated

“From too much love of living”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

«Сад Прозерпины» (The Garden of Proserpine), 1866

“Though one were strong as seven”

Algernon Charles Swinburne

«Сад Прозерпины» (The Garden of Proserpine), 1866

“All Egypt aches in the sun's sight;”

Algernon Charles Swinburne