Page:Songs of the Springtides - Swinburne (1880).pdf/123

 Fed at his hands and fostered round his knees? Fear takes the spirit in thraldom at his nod, And pity makes it as the spirit of God, As his own soul that from her throne above Sheds on all souls of men her showers of love, On all earth's evil and pain Pours mercy forth as rain And comfort as the dewfall on dry land; And feeds with pity from a faultless hand All by their own fault stricken, all cast out By all men's scorn or doubt, Or with their own hands wounded, or by fate Brought into bondage of men's fear or hate.

In violence of strange visions north and south Confronted, east and west, With frozen or fiery breast,