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Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Sestina” · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, September 16th, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Algernon Charles Swinburne.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's called Sestina.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's named for its poetic form,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is typically a poem comprised of six,
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  SPEAKER_00: six-line stanzas,
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  SPEAKER_00: Every stanza must have the same six words terminating its six lines,
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  SPEAKER_00: but these six words are rearranged so that they fall in a different order.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then the seventh and final stanza is merely three lines long,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it must incorporate all six of these recurring words.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a fun form that's always a bit of a juggling act and There are ways
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  SPEAKER_00: that you can accomplish it formulaically,
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  SPEAKER_00: check some boxes and do the right mathematical equations and it comes out right.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then there are the poets who manage to execute it with
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  SPEAKER_00: that little extra something that instead of being constrained by the necessity of
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  SPEAKER_00: the form,
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  SPEAKER_00: find a way to use the necessity of the form to produce something novel and striking.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I think Swinburne accomplishes that here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sestina.
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  SPEAKER_00: I saw my soul at rest upon a day,
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  SPEAKER_00: as a bird sleeping in the nest of night,
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  SPEAKER_00: among soft leaves that give the starlight way,
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  SPEAKER_00: to touch its wings but not its eyes with light,
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  SPEAKER_00: so that it knew as one envisions may, and knew not as men waking of delight.
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  SPEAKER_00: This was the measure of my soul's delight,
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  SPEAKER_00: it had no power of joy to fly by day,
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  SPEAKER_00: no part in the large lordship of the light,
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  SPEAKER_00: but in secret moon beholden way,
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  SPEAKER_00: had all its will of dreams and pleasant night,
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  SPEAKER_00: and all the love and life that sleepers may.
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  SPEAKER_00: But such life's triumph as men waking may,
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  SPEAKER_00: It might not have to feed its faint delight,
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  SPEAKER_00: Between the stars by night and sun by day,
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  SPEAKER_00: Shut up with green leaves and little light,
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  SPEAKER_00: Because its way was as a lost star's way, A world not wholly known of day or night.
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  SPEAKER_00: All loves and dreams and sounds and gleams of night Made it all music
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  SPEAKER_00: that such minstrels may, And all they had, they gave it up to light.
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  SPEAKER_00: But in the full face of the fire of day,
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  SPEAKER_00: what place shall be for any starry light,
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  SPEAKER_00: but part of heaven in all the wide sun's way?
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet the soul woke not,
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  SPEAKER_00: sleeping by the way,
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  SPEAKER_00: watched as a nurse-thing the large-eyed night,
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  SPEAKER_00: and sought no strength nor knowledge of the day,
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  SPEAKER_00: nor a closer touch conclusive of delight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nor mightier joy, nor truer than dreamers may, Nor more of song than they, nor more of light.
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  SPEAKER_00: For who sleeps once and sees the secret light,
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  SPEAKER_00: Whereby sleep shows the soul a fairer way,
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  SPEAKER_00: Between the rise and rest of day and night,
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  SPEAKER_00: Shall care no more to fare as all men may?
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  SPEAKER_00: But be his place of pain or of delight, There shall he dwell, beholding night as day.
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  SPEAKER_00: Song, have thy day, and take thy fill of light, before the night be fallen across the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sing while he may, man hath no long delight.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with another subscriber episode and here on the main channel on Friday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Until then,
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  SPEAKER_00: find us at dailypoempod.substack.com to listen to past episodes of The Daily Poem,
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  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.