The Heptalogia

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Title: The Heptalogia
Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Release Date: April 19, 2006 [EBook #18210]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
HEPTALOGIA ***
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THE HEPTALOGIA
By Algernon Charles Swinburne
Taken from THE COLLECTED POETICAL WORKS
OF
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, VOL. V
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
THE
HEPTALOGIA
By
Algernon Charles Swinburne
1917
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_First printed (Chatto), 1904
Reprinted 1904, '09, '10, '12

(Heinemann), 1917_
_London: William Heinemann, 1917_

THE HEPTALOGIA
THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL 373

JOHN JONES'S WIFE 375
THE POET AND THE WOODLOUSE 396
THE PERSON OF THE HOUSE 400
LAST WORDS OF A SEVENTH-RATE POET 406
SONNET FOR A PICTURE 421
NEPHELIDIA 422

SPECIMENS OF MODERN POETS
THE HEPTALOGIA
OR
THE SEVEN AGAINST SENSE
A CAP WITH SEVEN BELLS
THE HIGHER PANTHEISM
IN A NUTSHELL
One, who is not, we see: but one, whom we see not, is:
Surely this is
not that: but that is assuredly this.
What, and wherefore, and whence? for under is over and under: If
thunder could be without lightning, lightning could be without thunder.
Doubt is faith in the main: but faith, on the whole, is doubt: We cannot
believe by proof: but could we believe without?
Why, and whither, and how? for barley and rye are not clover: Neither
are straight lines curves: yet over is under and over.
Two and two may be four: but four and four are not eight:
Fate and

God may be twain: but God is the same thing as fate.
Ask a man what he thinks, and get from a man what he feels: God, once
caught in the fact, shows you a fair pair of heels.
Body and spirit are twins: God only knows which is which:
The soul
squats down in the flesh, like a tinker drunk in a ditch.
More is the whole than a part: but half is more than the whole: Clearly,
the soul is the body: but is not the body the soul?
One and two are not one: but one and nothing is two:
Truth can
hardly be false, if falsehood cannot be true.
Once the mastodon was: pterodactyls were common as cocks:
Then
the mammoth was God: now is He a prize ox.
Parallels all things are: yet many of these are askew:
You are
certainly I: but certainly I am not you.
Springs the rock from the plain, shoots the stream from the rock: Cocks
exist for the hen: but hens exist for the cock.
God, whom we see not, is: and God, who is not, we see:
Fiddle, we
know, is diddle: and diddle, we take it, is dee.

JOHN JONES'S WIFE
I
AT THE PIANO
I
Love me and leave me; what love bids retrieve me? can June's fist
grasp May?
Leave me and love me; hopes eyed once above me like

spring's sprouts
decay;
Fall as the snow falls, when summer leaves grow false--cards
packed
for storm's play!
II
Nay, say Decay's self be but last May's elf, wing shifted, eye sheathed--
Changeling in April's crib rocked, who lets 'scape rills locked fast
since frost breathed--
Skin cast (think!) adder-like, now bloom bursts
bladder-like,--bloom
frost bequeathed?
III
Ah, how can fear sit and hear as love hears it grief's heart's cracked
grate's screech?
Chance lets the gate sway that opens on hate's way
and shews on shame's
beach
Crouched like an imp sly change watch sweet love's shrimps
lie, a
toothful in each.
IV
Time feels his tooth slip on husks wet from Truth's lip, which drops
them and grins--
Shells where no throb stirs of life left in lobsters
since joy thrilled
their fins--
Hues of the prawn's tail or comb that makes dawn stale, so
red for our

sins!
V
Years blind and deaf use the soul's joys as refuse, heart's peace as
manure,
Reared whence, next June's rose shall bloom where our
moons rose last
year, just as pure:
Moons' ends match roses' ends: men by beasts'
noses' ends mete sin's
stink's