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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CYRIL TOURNEUR by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

Poet Analysis

First Line: A SEA THAT HEAVES WITH HORROR OF THE NIGHT
Last Line: AND OVER ALL THESE ONE STAR -- CHASTITY.
Subject(s): DEATH; HELL; SEA; SOUL; STORMS; DEAD, THE; OCEAN;

A SEA that heaves with horror of the night,
As maddened by the moon that hangs aghast
With strain and torment of the ravening blast,
Haggard as hell, a bleak blind bloody light;
No shore but one red reef of rock in sight,
Whereon the waifs of many a wreck were cast
And shattered in the fierce nights overpast
Wherein more souls toward hell than heaven took flight;
And 'twixt the shark-toothed rocks and swallowing shoals
A cry as out of hell from all these souls
Sent through the sheer gorge of the slaughtering sea,
Whose thousand throats, full-fed with life by death,
Fill the black air with foam and furious breath;
And over all these one star -- Chastity.



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