"Before the beginning of yearsThere came to the making of manTime, with a gift of tears;Grief, with a glass that ran;Pleasure, with pain for leaven;Summer, with flowers that fell;Remembrance, fallen from heaven,And madness risen from hell;Strength without hands to smite;Love that endures for a breath;Night, the shadow of light,And Life, the shadow of death."
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic associated with the Victorian literary world. He became one of the most prominent and controversial poets of his generation. He died in 1909.