Poems and Ballads (second series)/Before Sunset

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

BEFORE SUNSET.

 

In the lower lands of day
On the hither side of night,
There is nothing that will stay,
There are all things soft to sight;
Lighted shade and shadowy light
In the wayside and the way,
Hours the sun has spared to smite,
Flowers the rain has left to play.

Shall these hours run down and say
No good thing of thee and me?
Time that made us and will slay
Laughs at love in me and thee;

But if here the flowers may see
One whole hour of amorous breath,
Time shall die, and love shall be
Lord as time was over death.