T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Before Dawn
By Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)(From Poems and Ballads, 1866) |
SWEET life, if life were stronger, | |
| Earth clear of years that wrong her, | |
| Then two things might live longer, | |
| Two sweeter things than they; | |
| Delight, the rootless flower, | 5 |
| And love, the bloomless bower; | |
| Delight that lives an hour, | |
| And love that lives a day. | |
| From evensong to daytime, | |
| When April melts in Maytime, | 10 |
| Love lengthens out his playtime, | |
| Love lessens breath by breath, | |
| And kiss by kiss grows older | |
| On listless throat or shoulder | |
| Turned sideways now, turned colder | 15 |
| Than life that dreams of death. | |
| This one thing once worth giving | |
| Life gave, and seemed worth living; | |
| Sin sweet beyond forgiving | |
| And brief beyond regret: | 20 |
| To laugh and love together | |
| And weave with foam and feather | |
| And wind and words the tether | |
| Our memories play with yet. | |
| Ah, one thing worth beginning, | 25 |
| One thread in life worth spinning, | |
| Ah sweet, one sin worth sinning | |
| With all the whole soul’s will; | |
| To lull you till one stilled you, | |
| To kiss you till one killed you, | 30 |
| To feed you till one filled you, | |
| Sweet lips, if love could fill; | |
| To hunt sweet Love and lose him | |
| Between white arms and bosom, | |
| Between the bud and blossom, | 35 |
| Between your throat and chin; | |
| To say of shame—what is it? | |
| Of virtue—we can miss it, | |
| Of sin—we can but kiss it, | |
| And it’s no longer sin: | 40 |
| To feel the strong soul, stricken | |
| Through fleshly pulses, quicken | |
| Beneath swift sighs that thicken, | |
| Soft hands and lips that smite; | |
| Lips that no love can tire, | 45 |
| With hands that sting like fire, | |
| Weaving the web Desire | |
| To snare the bird Delight. | |
| But love so lightly plighted, | |
| Our love with torch unlighted, | 50 |
| Paused near us unaffrighted, | |
| Who found and left him free; | |
| None, seeing us cloven in sunder, | |
| Will weep or laugh or wonder; | |
| Light love stands clear of thunder, | 55 |
| And safe from winds at sea. | |
| As, when late larks give warning | |
| Of dying lights and dawning, | |
| Night murmurs to the morning, | |
| “Lie still, O love, lie still;” | 60 |
| And half her dark limbs cover | |
| The white limbs of her lover, | |
| With amorous plumes that hover | |
| And fervent lips that chill; | |
| As scornful day represses | 65 |
| Night’s void and vain caresses, | |
| And from her cloudier tresses | |
| Unwinds the gold of his, | |
| With limbs from limbs dividing | |
| And breath by breath subsiding; | 70 |
| For love has no abiding, | |
| But dies before the kiss; | |
| So hath it been, so be it; | |
| For who shall live and flee it? | |
| But look that no man see it | 75 |
| Or hear it unaware; | |
| Lest all who love and choose him | |
| See Love, and so refuse him; | |
| For all who find him lose him, | |
| But all have found him fair. | 80 |