Sighing—one long low lovely loveless call,
Dying—one pause in song so flamelike fast—
‘Atthis, long since in old time overpast’—
One soft first pause and last.
We cannot take leave of Swinburne without paying tribute to his Sapphics. English and American poets in general have not been successful with the Sapphic strophe, though in modern times Canning’s Needy Knife-grinder is a good specimen; and Tennyson caught the real Greek cadence in his specimen:
Faded every violet, all the roses;
Gone the glorious promise, and the victim
Broken in this anger of Aphrodite
Yields to the victor.