Three times thrice hath winter’s rough white wing
Crossed and curdled wells and streams with ice
Since his birth whose praises love would sing
Three times thrice.
Earth nor sea bears flower nor pearl of price
Fit to crown the forehead of my king,
Honey meet to please him, balm, nor spice.
Love can think of nought but love to bring
Fit to serve or do him sacrifice
Ere his eyes have looked upon the spring
Three times thrice.
II.
Three times thrice the world has fallen on slumber,
Shone and waned and withered in a trice,
Frost has fettered Thames and Tyne and Humber
Three times thrice,
Fogs have swoln too thick for steel to slice,
Cloud and mud have soiled with grime and umber
Earth and heaven, defaced as souls with vice,
Winds have risen to wreck, snows fallen to cumber,
Ships and chariots, trapped like rats or mice,
Since my king first smiled, whose years now number
Three times thrice.
III.
Three times thrice, in wine of song full-flowing,
Pledge, my heart, the child whose eyes suffice,
Once beheld, to set thy joy-bells going
Three times thrice.
Not the lands of palm and date and rice
Glow more bright when summer leaves them glowing,
Laugh more light when suns and winds entice.
Noon and eve and midnight and cock-crowing,
Child whose love makes life as paradise,
Love should sound your praise with clarions blowing
Three times thrice.
(Algernon Charles Swinburne)
More Poetry from Algernon Charles Swinburne:
Algernon Charles Swinburne Poems based on Topics: Love, World, Heaven, Kings & Queens, Laughter, Spring, Wine, Vice & Virtue- 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)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, World Poems, Heaven Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Spring Poems, Wine Poems, Laughter Poems, Vice & Virtue PoemsBased on Keywords: tyne, clarions, curdled, swoln, fogs, umber, joy-bells, cumber, defaced, waned, humber
- Aechdeacon Barbour (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
- The Old Sheperd's Recollections (Matilda Betham Poems)
- The Art Of Preserving Health. Book IV (John Armstrong Poems)
- Poem For The Two Hundred And Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Founding Of Harvard College (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
- Among the Hills (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)