SOFT, small, and sweet as sunniest flowers
That bask in heavenly heat
When bud by bud breaks, breathes, and cowers,
Soft, small, and sweet.
A babe’s hands open as to greet
The tender touch of ours
And mock with motion faint and fleet
The minutes of the new strange hours
That earth, not heaven, must mete;
Buds fragrant still from heaven’s own bowers,
Soft, small, and sweet.
A velvet vice with springs of steel
That fasten in a trice
And clench the fingers fast that feel
A velvet vice
(Algernon Charles Swinburne)
More Poetry from Algernon Charles Swinburne:
Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems based on Topics: Heaven- A Channel Crossing (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)
- A Ballad of Death (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)
- A Forsaken Garden (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)
- A Jacobite's Exile (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)
- A Leave-Taking (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)
- A Ballad Of Fran (Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems)