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These were a part of the playing I heard
Once, ere my love and my heart were at strife;
Love that sings and hath wings as a bird,
Balm of the wound and heft of the knife.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems and Ballads: First Series (1866)

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More quotes by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Life is the lust of a lamp for the light that is dark till the dawn of the day that we die.

The Heptalogia (1880)

My loss may shine yet goodlier than your gain
When time and God give judgment.

Marino Faliero (1885)

Fear that makes faith may break faith; and a fool
Is but in folly stable.

Bothwell: A Tragedy (1874)

Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.

Atalanta in Calydon (1865)

The loves and hours of the life of a man,
They are swift and sad, being born of the sea.

Poems and Ballads: First Series (1866)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Algernon Charles Swinburne (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.