Arts & Sciences

In Sepulcretis (IV)

by Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837–1909

From A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems

Arts & Sciences

Shame, such as never yet dealt heavier stroke
On heads more shameful, fall on theirs through whom
Dead men may keep inviolate not their tomb,
But all its depths these ravenous grave-worms choke
And yet what waste of wrath were this, to invoke
Shame on the shameless? Even their twin-born doom,
Their native air of life, a carrion fume,
Their natural breath of love, a noisome smoke,
The bread they break, the cup whereof they drink,
The record whose remembrance damns their name,
Smells, tastes, and sounds of nothing but of shame.
If thankfulness nor pity bids them think
What work is this of theirs, and pause betimes,
Not Shakespeare's grave would scare them off with rhymes.

MLA

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “In Sepulcretis (IV).” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/swinburne/745/.

Chicago

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. “In Sepulcretis (IV).” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/swinburne/745/.

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