Étude Réaliste (excerpts)

Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)



A baby's hands, like rosebuds furled
  Whence yet no leaf expands,
  Ope if you touch, though close upcurled,
A baby's hands.
  Then, fast as warriors grip their brands
  When battle's bolt is hurled,
  They close, clenched hard like tightening bands.
  No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled
  Match, even in loveliest lands,
The sweetest flowers in all the world--
  A baby's hands.

III

  A baby's eyes, ere speech begin,
  Ere lips learn words or sighs,
Bless all things bright enough to win
A baby's eyes.
  Love, while the sweet thing laughs and lies,
  And sleep flows out and in,
  Sees perfect in them Paradise.
  Their glance might cast out pain and sin,
  Their speech make dumb the wise,
  By mute glad godhead felt within
  A baby's eyes.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
40

Quick analysis:

Scheme abaBbababaB cdcDdcxcdcD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 752
Words 128
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 11, 11

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho ("Sapphics"), Anactoria ("Anactoria"), Jesus ("Hymn to Proserpine": Galilaee, La. "Galilean") and Catullus ("To Catullus"). more…

All Algernon Charles Swinburne poems | Algernon Charles Swinburne Books

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