Songs Before Sunrise by Algernon Charles Swinburne
page 23 of 242 (09%)
page 23 of 242 (09%)
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From years whose tongues of flame
Prophesied in her name Her feet should keep truth's bright and burning trace, We needs must have her heart with us, Whose hearts are one with man's; she must be dead or thus. 19 Who is against us? who is on our side? Whose heart of all men's hearts is one with man's? Where art thou that wast prophetess and bride, When truth and thou trod under time and chance? What latter light of what new hope shall guide Out of the snares of hell thy feet, O France? What heel shall bruise these heads that hiss and glide, What wind blow out these fen-born fires that dance Before thee to thy death? No light, no life, no breath, From thy dead eyes and lips shall take the trance, Till on that deadliest crime Reddening the feet of time Who treads through blood and passes, time shall glance Pardon, and Italy forgive, And Rome arise up whom thou slewest, and bid thee live. 20 I set the trumpet to my lips and blow. The night is broken southward; the springs run, The daysprings and the watersprings that flow |
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