Life is the lust of a lamp for the light that is dark till the dawn of the day that we die.
Algernon Charles Swinburne The Heptalogia (1880)
As another is a series that expands the notion of what a favored author is, I submit a poet.
Even those of us who really dig romantic poetry - and if we are men, are comfortable enough in our masculinity to state it - admit that it is an acquired taste. Not so much difficult to acquire as opera, Korean food, or professional soccer (to an american anyway). . .and I have a taste for all those things. . .but still, a taste that takes a little bit of maturity and experience or at least precocity to get. But when one does acquire the taste, it never leaves; start appreciating single malt, you will be drinking it until the day you die.
So with that in mind, let's have a taste of a poet that once acquired, I think will stay with you permanently. You've been warned.
So let's meet Mr. A. C. Swinburne. Hello, Algernon