Quote#Death
The swallow leaves her nest
Quote byThomas Lovell Beddoes · 1803–1849
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Song" (1825), as anthologised by R. H. Stoddard in Melodies and Madrigals (1866), pp. 168–9.
English (original)
The swallow leaves her nest, The soul my weary breast; But therefore let the rain On my grave Fall pure; for why complain? Since both will come again O’er the wave.The wind dead leaves and snow Doth hurry to and fro; And, once, a day shall break O’er the wave, When a storm of ghosts shall shake The dead, until they wake In the grave.
— Thomas Lovell Beddoes
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Why, Rome was naked once, a bastard smudge, Tumbled on straw, the denfellow of whelps, Fattened on roots, and, when a-thirst for milk, He crept beneath and drank the swagging udder Of Tyber’s brave she-wolf; and Heaven’s Judea Was folded …
A lake Is a river curled and asleep like a snake.
Brighter from her disease she shines, As fire the precious gold refines. Thus when the silent grave becomes Pregnant with life as fruitful wombs; When the wide seas and spacious earth Resign us to our second birth;
But see! the pains begin to fly; Tho’ Venus bled she could not die: See the new phœnix point her eyes, And lovelier from her ashes rise.
'Tis the night—the night Of the grave's delight, And the warlocks are at their play! Ye think that without, The wild winds shout, But no, it is they—it is they!
Good Christian People, I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here to die.
