MARINO FALIERO

23148

MARINO FALIERO

A TRAGEDY

BY

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

London

CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY

1885

[The right of translation is reserved]

YEAR after year has fallen on sleep, till change
Hath seen the fourth part of a century fade,
Since you, a guest to whom the vales were strange
Where Isis whispers to the murmuring shade
Above her face by winds and willows made,
And I, elate at heart with reverence, met.
Change must give place to death ere I forget
The pride that change of years has quenched not yet.

II.

Pride from profoundest humbleness of heart

Born, self-uplift at once and self-subdued,

Glowed, seeing his face whose hand had borne such part

In so sublime and strange vicissitude

As then filled all faint hearts with hope renewed

To think upon, and triumph; though the time
Were dense and foul with darkness cast from crime
Across the heights that hope was fain to climb.