Love
IV
From Studies in Song, A Century of Roundels, Sonnets on English Dramatic Poets, The Heptalogia, Etc.
Love hangs like light about your name
As music round the shell:
No heart can take of you a tame
Farewell.
Yet, when your very face was seen,
Ill gifts were yours for giving:
Love gat strange guerdons of my queen
When living.
O diamond heart unflawed and clear,
The whole world's crowning jewel!
Was ever heart so deadly dear
So cruel?
Yet none for you of all that bled
Grudged once one drop that fell:
Not one to life reluctant said
Farewell.
Cite this poem
MLA
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “IV.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/swinburne/301/.
Chicago
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “IV.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/swinburne/301/.
Read this poem with the Codex →