On the Deaths of Thomas Carlyle and George Eliot

written by


« Reload image

Two souls diverse out of our human sight
Pass, followed one with love and each with wonder:
The stormy sophist with his mouth of thunder,
Clothed with loud words and mantled in the might
Of darkness and magnificence of night;
And one whose eye could smite the night in sunder,
Searching if light or no light were thereunder,
And found in love of loving-kindness light.
Duty divine and Thought with eyes of fire,
Still following Righteousness with deep desire,
Shone sole and stern before her and above--
Sure stars and sole to steer by; but more sweet
Shone lower the loveliest lamp for earthly feet--
The light of little children, and their love.

© Algernon Charles Swinburne