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Poems and Ballads
Anima Anceps

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Till death have broken 
Sweet life's love-token, 
Till all be spoken 
That shall be said, 
What dost thou praying, 
O soul, and playing 
With song and saying, 
Things flown and fled? 
For this we know not-- 
That fresh springs flow not 
And fresh griefs grow not 
When men are dead; 
When strange years cover 
Lover and lover, 
And joys are over 
And tears are shed.


If one day's sorrow 
Mar the day's morrow-- 
If man's life borrow 
And man's death pay-- 
If souls once taken, 
If lives once shaken, 
Arise, awaken, 
By night, by day-- 
Why with strong crying 
And years of sighing, 
Living and dying, 
Fast ye and pray? 
For all your weeping, 
Waking and sleeping, 
Death comes to reaping 
And takes away.


Though time rend after 
Roof-tree from rafter, 
A little laughter 
Is much more worth 
Than thus to measure 
The hour, the treasure, 
The pain, the pleasure, 
The death, the birth; 
Grief, when days alter, 
Like joy shall falter; 
Song-book and psalter, 
Mourning and mirth. 
Live like the swallow; 
Seek not to follow 
Where earth is hollow 
Under the earth.

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