Ave Atque Vale

Ave Atque Vale – wiersz angielskiego poety Algernona Charlesa Swinburne’a, poświęcony pamięci Charlesa Baudelaire’a i opatrzony mottem z ‘’Kwiatów zła’’. Utwór składa się z osiemnastu numerowanych strof jedenastowersowych.

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,

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

Trod by no tropic feet?

Wiersz obfituje w typowe dla stylu Swinburne’a aliteracje: Thou sawest, in thine old singing season, brother,/Secrets and sorrows unbeheld of us; O sleepless heart and sombre soul unsleeping; Nor in your speech the sudden soul speaks thought,/Sleep, and have sleep for light; Or through mine ears a mourning musical/Of many mourners rolled; Makes manifest his music and his might.