Home
Fictions/Novels
Short Stories
Poems
Essays
Plays
Nonfictions
 
Authors
All Titles
 






In Association with Amazon.com

Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of Algernon Charles Swinburne > Text of Transvaal

A poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Transvaal

________________________________________________
Title:     The Transvaal
Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne [More Titles by Swinburne]

Patience, long sick to death, is dead. Too long
Have sloth and doubt and treason bidden us be
What Cromwell's England was not, when the sea
To him bore witness given of Blake how strong
She stood, a commonweal that brooked no wrong
From foes less vile than men like wolves set free
Whose war is waged where none may fight or flee--
With women and with weanlings. Speech and song
Lack utterance now for loathing. Scarce we hear
Foul tongues that blacken God's dishonoured name
With prayers turned curses and with praise found shame
Defy the truth whose witness now draws near
To scourge these dogs, agape with jaws afoam,
Down out of life. Strike, England, and strike home.

_October 9, 1899._





[The end]
Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem: Transvaal

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN