Tristram of Lyonesse

and Other Poems

1882

Algernon Charles Swinburne

TO MY BEST FRIEND

THEODORE WATTS

I DEDICATE IN THIS BOOK

THE BEST I HAVE TO GIVE HIM

Spring speaks again, and all our woods are stirred,
    And all our wide glad wastes aflower around,
    That twice have heard keen April’s clarion sound
Since here we first together saw and heard
Spring’s light reverberate and reiterate word
    Shine forth and speak in season. Life stands crowned
    Here with the best one thing it ever found,
As of my soul’s best birthdays dawns the third.

There is a friend that as the wise man saith
    Cleaves closer than a brother: nor to me
        Hath time not shown, through days like waves at strife,
This truth more sure than all things else but death,
    This pearl most perfect found in all the sea
        That washes toward your feet these waifs of life.

THE PINES
        April 1882

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