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The text below is based on that found in:

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. ‘ Had I Wist .’The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. London: Chatto & Windus, 1904.

Preferred Citation

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Had I Wist. The Algernon Charles Swinburne Project. Ed. John A. Walsh. Retrieved March 11, 2025 from: https://swinburne.luddy.indiana.edu/acs0000001-05-i018.html

Had I Wist

Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing Light and loud through sundawn and the dew's bright mist, How the time should come for hearts to sigh in saying Had I wist—

Surely not the roses, laughing as they kissed, Not the lovelier laugh of seas in sunshine swaying, Should have lured my soul to look thereon and list.

Now the wind is like a soul cast out and praying Vainly, prayers that pierce not ears when hearts resist: Now mine own soul sighs, adrift as wind and straying, Had I wist.