The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne In Six Volumes |
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 | The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne |  |
211
VI
[What secret thing of splendour or of shade]
What secret thing of splendour or of shadeSurmised in all those wandering ways wherein
Man, led of love and life and death and sin,
Strays, climbs, or cowers, allured, absorbed, afraid,
Might not the strong and sunlike sense invade
Of that full soul that had for aim to win
Light, silent over time's dark toil and din,
Life, at whose touch death fades as dead things fade?
O spirit of man, what mystery moves in thee
That he might know not of in spirit, and see
The heart within the heart that seems to strive,
The life within the life that seems to be,
And hear, through all thy storms that whirl and drive,
The living sound of all men's souls alive?
| The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne | |