Algernon Charles Swinburne on Memorial Day
1837–1909 England
← All quotes by Algernon Charles Swinburne
5 quotes
Not with dreams, but with blood and with iron,
Shall a nation be moulded at last.
A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems (1884)
On the mountains of memory, by the world's wellsprings,
In all men's eyes,
Where the light of the life of him is on all past things,
Death only dies.
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no man lives forever,
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
Poems and Ballads: First Series (1866)
Death, if thou wilt, fain would I plead with thee:
Canst thou not spare, of all our hopes have built,
One shelter where our spirits fain would be
Death, if thou wilt?
For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother,
Take at my hands this garland and farewell.
Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell,
And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother.