Astrophel and Other Poems

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Title: Astrophel and Other Poems
Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles
Swinburne, Vol. VI
Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Release Date: June 24, 2006 [EBook #18673]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AND OTHER POEMS ***
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Astrophel and other poems
By
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles

Swinburne--Vol. VI
THE COLLECTED POETICAL WORKS OF ALGERNON
CHARLES SWINBURNE
VOL. VI
A MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY: ASTROPHEL: A CHANNEL
PASSAGE AND OTHER TALES
SWINBURNE'S POETICAL WORKS
I. POEMS AND BALLADS (First Series).
II. SONGS BEFORE SUNRISE, AND SONGS OF TWO
NATIONS.
III. POEMS AND BALLADS (Second and Third Series), and SONGS
OF THE
SPRINGTIDES.
IV. TRISTRAM OF LYONESSE, THE TALE OF BALEN,
ATALANTA IN CALYDON,
ERECHTHEUS.
V. STUDIES IN SONG, A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS,
SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC
POETS, THE HEPTALOGIA, ETC.
VI. A MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY, ASTROPHEL, A CHANNEL
PASSAGE AND OTHER POEMS.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
A MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY: ASTROPHEL: A CHANNEL
PASSAGE AND OTHER POEMS

By
Algernon Charles Swinburne
1917
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_First printed_ (_Chatto_), 1904
_Reprinted_ 1904, '09, '10, '12
(_Heinemann_), 1917
_London: William Heinemann_, 1917
ASTROPHEL AND OTHER POEMS
ASTROPHEL 121
A NYMPHOLEPT 127
ON THE SOUTH COAST 141
AN AUTUMN VISION 149
A SWIMMER'S DREAM 159
GRACE DARLING 164
LOCH TORRIDON 171
THE PALACE OF PAN 178
A YEAR'S CAROLS 181
ENGLAND: AN ODE 186
ETON: AN ODE 191

THE UNION 194
EAST TO WEST 196
INSCRIPTIONS FOR THE FOUR SIDES OF A PEDESTAL 197
ON THE DEATH OF RICHARD BURTON 199
ELEGY 202
A SEQUENCE OF SONNETS ON THE DEATH OF ROBERT
BROWNING 208
SUNSET AND MOONRISE 212
BIRTHDAY ODE 214
THRENODY 217
THE BALLAD OF MELICERTES 220
AU TOMBEAU DE BANVILLE 222
LIGHT: AN EPICEDE 223
THRENODY 225
A DIRGE 227
A REMINISCENCE 229
VIA DOLOROSA 230
I. TRANSFIGURATION 231
II. DELIVERANCE 232
III. THANKSGIVING 233
IV. LIBITINA VERTICORDIA 234

V. THE ORDER OF RELEASE 235
VI. PSYCHAGOGOS 236
VII. THE LAST WORD 237
IN MEMORY OF AURELIO SAFFI 238
THE FESTIVAL OF BEATRICE 242
THE MONUMENT OF GIORDANO BRUNO 243
LIFE IN DEATH 245
EPICEDE 246
MEMORIAL VERSES ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM BELL
SCOTT 249
AN OLD SAYING 253
A MOSS-ROSE 254
TO A CAT 255
HAWTHORN DYKE 258
THE BROTHERS 259
JACOBITE SONG 263
THE BALLAD OF DEAD MEN'S BAY 266
DEDICATION 271
ASTROPHEL AND OTHER POEMS
TO WILLIAM MORRIS
ASTROPHEL

AFTER READING SIR PHILIP SIDNEY'S ARCADIA IN THE

GARDEN OF AN OLD ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE
I
A star in the silence that follows
The song of the death of the sun

Speaks music in heaven, and the hollows
And heights of the world
are as one;
One lyre that outsings and outlightens
The rapture of
sunset, and thrills
Mute night till the sense of it brightens
The soul that it fills.
The flowers of the sun that is sunken
Hang heavy of heart as of head;

The bees that have eaten and drunken
The soul of their sweetness
are fled;
But a sunflower of song, on whose honey
My spirit has fed
as a bee,
Makes sunnier than morning was sunny
The twilight for me.
The letters and lines on the pages
That sundered mine eyes and the
flowers
Wax faint as the shadows of ages
That sunder their season
and ours;
As the ghosts of the centuries that sever
A season of
colourless time
From the days whose remembrance is ever,
As they were, sublime.
The season that bred and that cherished
The soul that I commune
with yet,
Had it utterly withered and perished
To rise not again as it
set,
Shame were it that Englishmen living
Should read as their
forefathers read
The books of the praise and thanksgiving
Of Englishmen dead.
O light of the land that adored thee
And kindled thy soul with her
breath,
Whose life, such as fate would afford thee,
Was lovelier
than aught but thy death,
By what name, could thy lovers but know it,


Might love of thee hail thee afar,
Philisides, Astrophel, poet
Whose love was thy star?
A star in the moondawn of Maytime,
A star in the cloudland of
change;
Too splendid and sad for the daytime
To cheer or eclipse or
estrange;
Too sweet for tradition or vision
To see but through
shadows of tears
Rise deathless across the division
Of measureless years.
The twilight may deepen and harden
As nightward the stream of it
runs
Till starshine transfigure a garden
Whose radiance responds to