A Channel Passage and Other Poems/To George Frederick Watts

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Previously printed in The Athenæum, February 27th, 1897, p. 278.

3673202A Channel Passage and Other Poems — To George Frederick WattsAlgernon Charles Swinburne

TO GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS

On the Eightieth Anniversary of his Birth,
February 23, 1897

High thought and hallowed love, by faith made one,
Begat and bare the sweet strong-hearted child,
Art, nursed of Nature; earth and sea and sun
Saw Nature then more godlike as she smiled.
Life smiled on death, and death on life: the Soul
Between them shone, and soared above their strife,
And left on Time's unclosed and starry scroll
A sign that quickened death to deathless life.
Peace rose like Hope, a patient queen, and bade
Hell's firstborn, Faith, abjure her creed and die;
And Love, by life and death made sad and glad,
Gave Conscience ease, and watched Good Will pass by.
All these make music now of one man's name,
Whose life and age are one with love and fame.