“Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time with a gift of tears”
Second chorus, lines 1-12.
Atalanta in Calydon (1865)
Context: Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time with a gift of tears,
Grief with a glass that ran,
Pleasure with pain for leaven,
Summer with flowers that fell,
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And Madness risen from hell,
Strength without hands to smite,
Love that endures for a breath;
Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.
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Algernon Charles Swinburne 87
English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic 1837–1909Related quotes
The Sending of the Animals, as quoted in The Savour of Salt: A Henry Salt Anthology, Centaur Press, 1989, p. 55.
“3330. Man begins to die before he is born.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
'What dwells in man" I already knew. Now I learnt what is not given him. It is not given to man to know his own needs.
Source: What Men Live By (1881), Ch. XI
“A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he was born.”
More likely attributable to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Misattributed
“The time to begin most things is ten years ago.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
“It has never been man’s gift to make wildernesses. But he can make deserts, and has.”
"The War Between the Rough Riders and the Bird Watchers" (1959 address; reprinted in Wildlands and Our Civilization, David Brower, editor, 1964, and in Voices for the Wilderness, William Schwarz, editor, 1970, page 76)