Poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Cor Cordium

O heart of hearts, the chalice of love's fire,
       Hid round with flowers and all the bounty of bloom;
       O wonderful and perfect heart, for whom
The lyrist liberty made life a lyre;
O heavenly heart, at whose most dear desire
       Dead love, living and singing, cleft his tomb,
       And with him risen and regent in death's room
All day thy choral pulses rang full choir;
O heart whose beating blood was running song,
       O sole thing sweeter than thine own songs were,
               Help us for thy free love's sake to be free,
True for thy truth's sake, for thy strength's sake strong,
       Till very liberty make clean and fair
               The nursing earth as the sepulchral sea.

1. Laus Veneris
2. A Ballad of Life
3. Hendecasyllabics
4. Ave Atque Vale
5. Messidor

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