The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Dark Month, by Algernon Charles Swinburne

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Dark Month
From Swinburne's Collected Poetical Works Vol. V

Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne

Release Date: June 7, 2006 [EBook #18524]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DARK MONTH ***

Produced by Louise Pryor, Paul Murray and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

A Dark Month

By
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of
Algernon Charles Swinburne (Vol. V)

THE COLLECTED POETICAL WORKS
OF ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

VOL. V

STUDIES IN SONG : A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS : SONNETS ON
ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS : THE HEPTALOGIA : ETC.

SWINBURNE'S POETICAL WORKS

I. POEMS AND BALLADS (First Series).

II. SONGS BEFORE SUNRISE, and SONGS OF TWO NATIONS.

III. POEMS AND BALLADS (Second and Third Series), and
SONGS OF THE SPRING TIDES.

IV. TRISTRAM OF LYONESSE, THE TALE OF BALEN,
ATALANTA IN CALYDON, ERECHTHEUS.

V. STUDIES IN SONG, A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS, SONNETS ON ENGLISH
DRAMATIC POETS, THE HEPTALOGIA, ETC.

VI. A MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY, ASTROPHEL, A CHANNEL PASSAGE AND OTHER
POEMS.

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

STUDIES IN SONG : A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS : SONNETS ON
ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS : THE HEPTALOGIA : ETC.

By

Algernon Charles Swinburne

1917

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

_First printed (Chatto), 1904_
_Reprinted 1904, '09, '10, '12_
_(Heinemann), 1917_

_London: William Heinemann, 1917_

A DARK MONTH

"La maison sans enfants!"--VICTOR HUGO.

I

A month without sight of the sun
Rising or reigning or setting
Through days without use of the day,
Who calls it the month of May?
The sense of the name is undone
And the sound of it fit for forgetting.

We shall not feel if the sun rise,
We shall not care when it sets:
If a nightingale make night's air
As noontide, why should we care?
Till a light of delight that is done rise,
Extinguishing grey regrets;

Till a chi