Algernon Charles Swinburne

“ Light and night, whose clouds and glories change
⁠and mingle and divide,
Veil the truth whereof they witness, show the truth of
⁠things they hide.
Through the darkness and the splendour of the
⁠centuries, loud or dumb,
Shines and wanes and shines the spirit, lit with love
⁠of life to come.
Man, the soul made flesh, that knows not death from
⁠life, and fain would know,
Sees the face of time change colour as its tides recoil
⁠and flow. ”

“ The song of the soul and her story, bore witness that
⁠fear had lied.
All hope, all wonder, all trust, all doubt that knows not
⁠of fear,
The love of the body, the lust of the spirit to see and to
⁠hear,
All womanhood, fairer than love could conceive or
⁠desire or adore,
All manhood, radiant above all heights that it held of
⁠yore,
Lived by the life of his breath, with the speech of his
⁠soul's will spake,
And the light lit darkness to death whence never the
⁠dead shall wake. ”

“ That light and life wax perfect even through night and death.
⁠In vain had darkness heard
⁠Light speak the lustrous word
⁠That cast out faith in all save truth and love:
⁠In vain death's quickening rod
⁠Bade man rise up as God,
⁠Touched as with life unknown in heaven above:
⁠Fear turned his light of love to fire
That wasted earth, yet might not slay the soul's desire. ”