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The text below is based on that found in:

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. ‘Flower-Pieces.’The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. London: Chatto & Windus, 1904.

Preferred Citation

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Flower-Pieces. The Algernon Charles Swinburne Project. Ed. John A. Walsh. Retrieved March 11, 2025 from: https://swinburne.luddy.indiana.edu/acs0000001-05-i047.html

Flower-Pieces

I

LOVE LIES BLEEDING

Love lies bleeding in the bed whereover Roses lean with smiling mouths or pleading: Earth lies laughing where the sun's dart clove her: Love lies bleeding.

Stately shine his purple plumes, exceeding Pride of princes: nor shall maid or lover Find on earth a fairer sign worth heeding.

Yet may love, sore wounded, scarce recover Strength and spirit again, with life receding: Hope and joy, wind-winged, about him hover: Love lies bleeding.

II

LOVE IN A MIST

Light love in a mist, by the midsummer moon misguided, Scarce seen in the twilight garden if gloom insist, Seems vainly to seek for a star whose gleam has derided Light love in a mist.

All day in the sun, when the breezes do all they list, His soft blue raiment of cloudlike blossom abided Unrent and unwithered of winds and of rays that kissed.

Blithe-hearted or sad, as the cloud or the sun subsided, Love smiled in the flower with a meaning whereof none wist Save two that beheld, as a gleam that before them glided, Light love in a mist.