Algernon Charles Swinburne

Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Wherever there is a grain of loyalty there is a glimpse of freedom.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

There is no safety-net to protect against attraction.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Sleep; and if life was bitter to thee, pardon, If sweet, give thanks; thou hast no more to live; And to give…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

To have read the greatest works of any great poet, to have beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

“Though one were strong as seven, He too with death shall dwell, Nor wake with wings in heaven, Nor weep for pains…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Doubt is faith in the main: but faith, on the whole, is doubt; We cannot believe by proof: but could we believe…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

In fierce March weather White waves break tether, And whirled together At either hand, Like weeds uplifted, The tree-trunks rifted In spars…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading: Earth lies laughing where the sun's dart clove…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Ask nothing more of me sweet; All I can give you I give; Heart of my heart were it more, More would…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Before the beginning of years There came to the making of man Time with a gift of tears, Grief with a glass…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

The tadpole poet will never grow into anything bigger than a frog; not though in that stage of development he should puff…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of pain We'd hunt down Love together, Pluck out his flying-feather, And…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

“If love were what the rose is, And I were like the leaf, Our lives would grow together, In sad or singing…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

For winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

There is no such thing as a dumb poet or a handless painter. The essence of an artist is that he should…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

No blast of air or fire of sun Puts out the light whereby we run With girdled loins our lamplit race, And…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

“But now, you are twain, you are cloven apart, Flesh of his flesh, but heart of my heart; And deep in one…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

If love were what the rose is, And I were like the leaf, Our lives would grow together In sad or singing…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Where might is, the right is: Long purses make strong swords. Let weakness learn meekness: God save the House of Lords!

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

“Fierce midnights and famishing morrows, And the loves that complete and control All the joys of the flesh, all the sorrows That…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Sorrow, on wing through the world for ever, Here and there for awhile would borrow Rest, if rest might haply deliver Sorrow.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

There was a poor poet named Clough, Whom his friends all united to puff, But the public, though dull, Had not such…

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

Who knows but on their sleep may rise Such light as never heaven let through To lighten earth from Paradise?

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

A baby's feet, like sea-shells pink Might tempt, should heaven see meet, An angel's lips to kiss, we think, A baby's feet.

— Algernon Charles Swinburne