ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

children of banishment, Souls overcast,

Were the lights ye see vanish meant

Alway to last,

Ye would know not the sun overshining the shadows and stars overpast.

1 that saw where ye trod The dim paths of the night

Set the shadow call'd God

In your skies to give light ;

But the morning of manhood is risen, and the shadowless soul is in sight.

The tree many-rooted

That swells to the sky With frondage red-fruited,

The life- tree am I ;

In the buds of your lives is the sap of my leaves : ye shall live and not die.

But the Gods of your fashion

That take and that give, In their pity and passion

That scourge and forgive,

They are worms that are bred in the bark that falls off; they shall die and not live.

My own blood is what stanches

The wounds in my bark ; Stars caught in my branches

Make day of the dark,

And are worshipp'd as suns till the sunrise shall tread out their fires as a spark.

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