Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)

Extract from Erechtheus: Chthonia to Athens

I LIFT up mine eyes from the skirts of the shadow,

From the border of death to the limits of light;

O streams and rivers of mountain and meadow,

That hallow the last of my sight,

O father that wast of my mother,

Cephisus, O thou too his brother

From the bloom of whose banks as a prey

Winds harried my sister away,

O crown on the world’s head lying

Too high for its waters to drown,

Take yet this one word of me dying—

O city, O crown.

Though land-wind and sea-wind with mouths that blow slaughter

Should gird them to battle against thee again,

New-born of the blood of a maiden thy daughter,

The rage of their breath shall be vain.

For their strength shall be quenched and made idle,

And the foam of their mouths find a bridle,

And the height of their heads bow down

At the foot of the towers of the town.

Be blest and beloved as I love thee

Of all that shall draw from thee breath;

Be thy life as the sun’s is above thee;

I go to my death.