Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON AN OLD ROUNDEL, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON AN OLD ROUNDEL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Death, from thy rigor a voice appealed
Last Line: Ages ago.
Subject(s): Death; Roundels; Soul; Dead, The


I.

DEATH, from thy rigor a voice appealed,
And men still hear what the sweet cry saith,
Crying aloud in thine ears fast sealed,
Death.

As a voice in a vision that vanisheth,
Through the grave's gate barred and the portal steeled
The sound of the wail of it travelleth.

Wailing aloud from a heart unhealed,
It woke response of melodious breath
From lips now too by thy kiss congealed,
Death.

II.

Ages ago, from the lips of a sad glad poet
Whose soul was a wild dove lost in the whirling snow,
The soft keen plaint of his pain took voice to show it
Ages ago.

So clear, so deep, the divine drear accents flow,
No soul that listens may choose but thrill to know it,
Pierced and wrung by the passionate music's throe.

For us there murmurs a nearer voice below it,
Known once of ears that never again shall know
Nor mute as the mouth which felt death's wave o'erflow it
Ages ago.





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