OUT of the depths of darkling life where sin <br />Laughs piteously that sorrow should not know <br />Her own ill name, nor woe be counted woe; <br />Where hate and craft and lust make drearier din <br />Than sounds through dreams that grief holds revel in; <br />What charm of joy-bells ringing, streams that flow, <br />Winds that blow healing in each note they blow, <br />Is this that the outer darkness hears begin? <br /> <br />O sweetest heart of all thy time save one, <br />Star seen for love’s sake nearest to the sun, <br />Hung lamplike o’er a dense and doleful city, <br />Not Shakespeare’s very spirit, howe’er more great, <br />Than thine toward man was more compassionate, <br />Nor gave Christ praise from lips more sweet with pity.<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thomas-decker-viii/
