- The Swinburne is a stanzaic form patterned after Before the Mirror by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).
The Swinburne is: - stanzaic, written in any number of septets.
- metric, L1,L3,L5, & L6 are trimeter, L2 & L4 are dimeter, and L7 is pentameter.
- rhymed
ababccb dedeffe etc, L1 & L3 have feminine or falling rhyme.
This named form was
documented by Judi Van Gorder, on her most wonderful resource site: Poetry
Manum Opus, in a section about poetry form named after English poets.
Note: In addition to the specifications above, it is
also required that the sixth syllable in Line 7 rhyme with lines 5 and 6.
Before the Mirror
I.
WHITE
ROSE in red rose-garden
Is not
so white;
Snowdrops
that plead for pardon
And
pine for fright
Because
the hard East blows
Over
their maiden rows
Grow
not as this face grows from pale to bright.
Behind
the veil, forbidden,
Shut up
from sight,
Love,
is there sorrow hidden,
Is
there delight?
Is joy
thy dower or grief,
White
rose of weary leaf,
Late
rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?
Soft
snows that hard winds harden
Till
each flake bite
Fill
all the flowerless garden
Whose
flowers took flight
Long
since when summer ceased,
And men
rose up from feast,
And
warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.
II.
“Come
snow, come wind or thunder
High up
in air,
I watch
my face, and wonder
At my
bright hair;
Nought
else exalts or grieves
The
rose at heart, that heaves
With
love of her own leaves and lips that pair.
“She
knows not loves that kissed her
She
knows not where.
Art
thou the ghost, my sister,
White
sister there,
Am I
the ghost, who knows?
My
hand, a fallen rose,
Lies
snow-white on white snows, and takes no care.
“I
cannot see what pleasures
Or what
pains were;
What
pale new loves and treasures
New
years will bear;
What
beam will fall, what shower,
What
grief or joy for dower;
But one
thing knows the flower; the flower is fair.”
III.
Glad,
but not flushed with gladness,
Since
joys go by;
Sad,
but not bent with sadness,
Since
sorrows die;
Deep in
the gleaming glass
She
sees all past things pass,
And all
sweet life that was lie down and lie.
There
glowing ghosts of flowers
Draw
down, draw nigh;
And
wings of swift spent hours
Take
flight and fly;
She
sees by formless gleams,
She
hears across cold streams,
Dead
mouths of many dreams that sing and sigh.
Face
fallen and white throat lifted,
With
sleepless eye
She
sees old loves that drifted,
She
knew not why,
Old
loves and faded fears
Float
down a stream that hears
The
flowing of all men’s tears beneath the sky.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Pasted
from <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/before-the-mirror-2/>
Example poem
Caretaker (The Swinburne)
When forced to go
and going
with all due haste,
you leave already
knowing
there must be
waste.
I never, as a boy
expected old man's
joy
at seeing an old
toy I had misplaced.
The things you
leave behind you
are not all done.
They're simply
tasks assigned to
another one.
When your life
takes a turn
the habits you
adjourn
may tickle Time who
spurns a lack of fun.
© Lawrencealot -
May 8, 2014
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