Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1013

 ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

And wrought with weeping and laughter,

And fashion'd with loathing and love, With life before and after

And death beneath and above, For a day and a night and a morrow,

That his strength might endure for a span With travail and heavy sorrow,

The holy spirit of man.

��From the winds of the north and the south

They gather'd as unto strife; They breathed upon his mouth,

They filled his body with life; Eyesight and speech they wrought

For the veils of the soul therein, A time for labour and thought,

A time to serve and to sin, They gave him light in his ways,

And love, and a space for delight, And beauty and length of days,

And night, and sleep in the night. His speech is a burning fire;

With his lips he travaileth; In his heart is a blind desire,

In his eyes foreknowledge of death; He weaves, and is clothed with derision;

Sows, and he shall not reap; His life is a watch or a vision

Between a sleep and a sleep.

�� �