Page:Songs of the Springtides - Swinburne (1880).pdf/62

 The curse of new time for an elder time, Had caught, and held her yet, Enmeshed intolerably in the intolerant net, Who thought with craft to mock the God most high, And win by wiles his crown of prophecy From the Sun's hand sublime, As God were man, to spare or to forget.

But thou,—the gods have given thee and forgiven thee More than our master gave That strange-eyed spirit-wounded strange-tongued slave There questing houndlike where the roofs red-wet Reeked as a wet red grave. Life everlasting has their strange grace given thee, Even hers whom thou wast wont to sing and serve With eyes, but not with song, too swift to swerve; Yet might not even thine eyes estranged estrange her,