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1837–1909

III

Algernon Charles Swinburne

If light of life outlive the set of sun That men call death and end of all things, then How should not that which life held best for men And proved most precious, though it seem undone

By force of death and woful victory won, Be first and surest of revival, when Death shall bow down to life arisen again? So shall the soul seen be the self-same one

That looked and spake with even such lips and eyes As love shall doubt not then to recognise, And all bright thoughts and smiles of all time past Revive, transfigured, but in spirit and sense

None other than we knew, for evidence That love's last mortal word was not his last.

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III · Algernon Charles Swinburne · Poetry Cove