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Before the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time with a gift of tears,
Grief with a glass that ran,
Pleasure with pain for leaven,
Summer with flowers that fell,
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And Madness risen from hell,
Strength without hands to smite,
Love that endures for a breath;
Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne Atalanta in Calydon (1865)

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Love

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)

All Algernon Charles Swinburne quotes →

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

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.