Studies in Song by Algernon Charles Swinburne
page 11 of 101 (10%)
page 11 of 101 (10%)
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11. Mine own twice banished fathers' harbour-land, Their nursing-mother France, the well-beloved, By the arduous blast of sanguine sunrise fanned, Flamed on him, and his burning lips were moved As that live statue's throned on Lybian sand When morning moves it, ere her light faith roved From promise, and her tyrant's poisonous hand Fed hope with Corsic honey till she proved More deadly than despair And falser even than fair, Though fairer than all elder hopes removed As landmarks by the crime Of inundating time; Light faith by grief too loud too long reproved: For even as in some darkling dance Wronged love changed hands with hate, and turned his heart from France. 12. But past the snows and summits Pyrenean Love stronger-winged held more prevailing flight That o'er Tyrrhene, Iberian, and Ægean Shores lightened with one storm of sound and light. From earliest even to hoariest years one pæan Rang rapture through the fluctuant roar of fight, From Nestor's tongue in accents Achillean |
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