Friday, October 08, 2010

Quote of the Day

From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

- Algernon Charles Swinburne,
"The Garden of Proserpine"
(Via). I'd never read the poem before -- I honestly can't remember if I've ever read any Swinburne before at all, though it seems like I must have -- but it's quite something, well worth reading in its entirety.

(Unrelated Swinburnian thought: browsing this collection of quotes (trying to see if any were familiar, i.e. if I had read any before), I came across this line from his poem "Dolores": "Despair the twin-born of devotion." I have to wonder if Neil Gaiman thought of that before creating his twin characters Desire and Despair of the Endless.)

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