Poetry #3

Love and Sleep
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
Lying asleep between the strokes of night I saw my love lean over my sad bed, Pale as the duskiest lily's leaf or head,Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,Too wan for blushing and too warm for white, But perfect-coloured without white or red. And her lips opened amorously, and said--I wist not what, saving one word--Delight.And all her face was honey to my mouth, And all her body pasture to mine eyes; The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south, The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs And glittering eyelids of my soul's desire.







Author Algernon Charles Swinburne conveys this poem to be very intimate and romantic. I like this poet's style because he uses very indepth details to reveal his affection for his subject, his lover. He describes her appearances, slight actions, connotations, and eveything he feels about her. By using these continued descriptions and imagery he conveys his tone of "delight" and love in general. Swinburne uses imagery to depict what he sees with his own eyes and what he feels, as though the reader is with im in the room. He is constantly using adjectives and actions describing every detail of his lover. I like this style because he is not simply telling you that he is obsessed with this lady, but he describes the emtional attatchment felt with her, conveying the romance of the poem.