| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | August 31 | | Ave Atque Vale | | By Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) |
| | | | In memory of Charles Baudelaire, a French critic and poet of the romantic school. He died on August 31, 1867. |
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SHALL I strew on thee rose or rue or laurel, | |
| Brother, on this that was the veil of thee? | |
| Or quiet sea-flower moulded by the sea, | |
| Or simplest growth of meadow-sweet or sorrel, | |
| Such as the summer-sleepy Dryads weave, | 5 |
| Waked up by snow-soft sudden rains at eve? | |
| Or wilt thou rather, as on earth before, | |
| Half-faded fiery blossoms, pale with heat | |
| And full of bitter summer, but more sweet | |
| To thee than gleanings of a northern shore | 10 |
| Trod by no tropic feet? | |
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| Sleep; and if life was bitter to thee, pardon, | |
| If sweet, give thanks; thou hast no more to live; | |
| And to give thanks is good, and to forgive. | |
| Out of the mystic and the mournful garden | 15 |
| Where all day through thine hands in barren braid | |
| Wove the sick flowers of secrecy and shade, | |
| Green buds of sorrow and sin, and remnants grey, | |
| Sweet-smelling, pale with poison, sanguine-hearted, | |
| Passions that sprang from sleep and thoughts that started, | 20 |
| Shall death not bring us all as thee one day | |
| Among the days departed? | |
| For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother, | |
| Take at my hands this garland, and farewell. | |
| Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell, | 25 |
| And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother, | |
| With sadder than the Niobean womb, | |
| And in the hollow of her breast a tomb. | |
| Content thee, howsoe’er, whose days are done; | |
| There lies not any troublous thing before, | 30 |
| Nor sight nor sound to war against thee more, | |
| For whom all winds are quiet as the sun, | |
| All waters as the shore. | | | |
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