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A Century of Roundels

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

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Two Preludes

I — Lohengrin

Love, out of the depth of things,
As a dewfall felt from above,
From the heaven whence only springs
   Love,

Love, heard from the heights thereof,
The clouds and the watersprings,
Draws close as the clouds remove.

And the soul in it speaks and sings,
A swan sweet-souled as a dove,
An echo that only rings
   Love.

II — Tristan und Isolde

Fate, out of the deep sea’s gloom,
When a man’s heart’s pride grows great,
And nought seems now to foredoom
   Fate,

Fate, laden with fears in wait,
Draws close through the clouds that loom,
Till the soul see, all too late,

More dark than a dead world’s tomb,
More high than the sheer dawn’s gate,
More deep than the wide sea’s womb,
   Fate.

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