Poetry Friday: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving (from Via Dolorosa)

Could love give strength to thank thee! Love can give
 Strong sorrow heart to suffer: what we bear
 We would not put away, albeit this were
A burden love might cast aside and live.
Love chooses rather pain than palliative,
 Sharp thought than soft oblivion. May we dare
 So trample down our passion and our prayer
That fain would cling round feet now fugitive
And stay them—so remember, so forget,
What joy we had who had his presence yet,
What griefs were his while joy in him was ours
 And grief made weary music of his breath,
As even to hail his best and last of hours
 With love grown strong enough to thank thee, Death?

- Algernon Charles Swinburne