Skip to content
Linespedia

Hendecasyllabics

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

Topics: classic

In the month of the long decline of roses     I, beholding the summer dead before me,     Set my face to the sea and journeyed silent,     Gazing eagerly where above the sea-mark     Flame as fierce as the fervid eyes of lions     Half divided the eyelids of the sunset;     Till I heard as it were a noise of waters     Moving tremulous under feet of angels     Multitudinous, out of all the heavens;     Knew the fluttering wind, the fluttered foliage,     Shaken fitfully, full of sound and shadow;     And saw, trodden upon by noiseless angels,     Long mysterious reaches fed with moonlight,     Sweet sad straits in a soft subsiding channel,     Blown about by the lips of winds I knew not,     Winds not born in the north nor any quarter,     Winds not warm with the south nor any sunshine;     Heard between them a voice of exultation,     Lo, the summer is dead, the sun is faded,     Even like as a leaf the year is withered,     All the fruits of the day from all her branches     Gathered, neither is any left to gather.     All the flowers are dead, the tender blossoms,     All are taken away; the season wasted,     Like an ember among the fallen ashes.     Now with light of the winter days, with moonlight,     Light of snow, and the bitter light of hoarfrost,     We bring flowers that fade not after autumn,     Pale white chaplets and crowns of latter seasons,     Fair false leaves (but the summer leaves were falser),     Woven under the eyes of stars and planets     When low light was upon the windy reaches     Where the flower of foam was blown, a lily     Dropt among the sonorous fruitless furrows     And green fields of the sea that make no pasture:     Since the winter begins, the weeping winter,     All whose flowers are tears, and round his temples     Iron blossom of frost is bound for ever.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"In the month of the long decline of roses..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Algernon Charles Swinburne delivers a powerful performance in "Hendecasyllabics"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Algernon Charles Swinburne

"In the month of the long decline of roses..." by Algernon Charles Swinburne

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"I.     Is the sound a trumpet blown, or a bell for burial tolled,     Whence the whole air vibrates now to the clash of words like swords     Let"

"Kind, wise, and true as truth's own heart,     A soul that here     Chose and held fast the better part     And cast out fear,     Has left us"

"I     Out of hell a word comes hissing, dark as doom,     Fierce as fire, and foul as plague-polluted gloom;     Out of hell wherein the sinless da"

"A faint sea without wind or sun;     A sky like flameless vapour dun;     A valley like an unsealed grave     That no man cares to weep upon,"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Algernon Charles Swinburne

About Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was an English poet known for metrical innovation and bold themes. His "Atalanta in Calydon" and "Poems and Ballads" challenged Victorian conventions with their musical intensity and controversial subject matter.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"I.     Is the sound a trumpet blown, or a bell for..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.