Poetical Works
of
ROBERT BRIDGES

Volume II

London
Smith, Elder & Co
15 Waterloo Place
1898

OXFORD: HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

POETICAL WORKS OF
ROBERT BRIDGES

VOLUME THE SECOND
CONTAINING

LIST OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS

SHORTER POEMS.

1. Bks. I-IV. Clarendon Press. Geo. Bell & Sons, Oct. 1890. Reprinted, Nov. 1890, 1891, 1894.

2. Bks. I-V. Private Press of H. Daniel. Oxford, 1894.

3. Do. do. Clarendon Press. George Bell & Sons, 1896.

4. Cheap issue of 3. 1899. Reprinted, 1899.

NEW POEMS.

Collected here for the first time.

For account of earlier issues of first four books of Shorter Poems, and of some of the poems contained in the New Poems, see notes at end of this volume.

THE
SHORTER
POEMS

IN FOUR BOOKS

SHORTER POEMS

BOOK I

DEDICATED TO
H. E. W.

1
ELEGY

Clear and gentle stream!

Known and loved so long

That hast heard the song,

And the idle dream

Of my boyish day;

While I once again

Down thy margin stray,

In the selfsame strain

Still my voice is spent,

With my old lament

And my idle dream,

Clear and gentle stream!

Where my old seat was

Here again I sit,

Where the long boughs knit

Over stream and grass

A translucent eaves:

Where back eddies play

Shipwreck with the leaves,

And the proud swans stray,

Sailing one by one

Out of stream and sun,

And the fish lie cool

In their chosen pool.

Many an afternoon

Of the summer day

Dreaming here I lay;

And I know how soon,

Idly at its hour,

First the deep bell hums

From the minster tower,

And then evening comes,

Creeping up the glade,

With her lengthening shade,

And the tardy boon,

Of her brightening moon.

Clear and gentle stream!

Ere again I go

Where thou dost not flow,

Well does it beseem

Thee to hear again

Once my youthful song,

That familiar strain

Silent now so long:

Be as I content

With my old lament

And my idle dream,

Clear and gentle stream.

2
ELEGY

The wood is bare: a river-mist is steeping

The trees that winter’s chill of life bereaves:

Only their stiffened boughs break silence, weeping

Over their fallen leaves;

That lie upon the dank earth brown and rotten,

Miry and matted in the soaking wet:

Forgotten with the spring, that is forgotten

By them that can forget.

Yet it was here we walked when ferns were springing,

And through the mossy bank shot bud and blade:—

Here found in summer, when the birds were singing,

A green and pleasant shade.

’Twas here we loved in sunnier days and greener;

And now, in this disconsolate decay,

I come to see her where I most have seen her,

And touch the happier day.

For on this path, at every turn and corner,

The fancy of her figure on me falls:

Yet walks she with the slow step of a mourner,

Nor hears my voice that calls.

So through my heart there winds a track of feeling,

A path of memory, that is all her own:

Whereto her phantom beauty ever stealing

Haunts the sad spot alone.

About her steps the trunks are bare, the branches

Drip heavy tears upon her downcast head;

And bleed unseen wounds that no sun staunches,

For the year’s sun is dead.

And dead leaves wrap the fruits that summer planted:

And birds that love the South have taken wing.

The wanderer, loitering o’er the scene enchanted,

Weeps, and despairs of spring.

3

Poor withered rose and dry,

Skeleton of a rose,

Risen to testify

To love’s sad close:

Treasured for love’s sweet sake,

That of joy past

Thou might’st again awake

Memory at last.

Yet is thy perfume sweet;

Thy petals red

Yet tell of summer heat,

And the gay bed:

Yet, yet recall the glow

Of the gazing sun,

When at thy bush we two

Joined hands in one.

But, rose, thou hast not seen,

Thou hast not wept

The change that passed between,

Whilst thou hast slept.

To me thou seemest yet

The dead dream’s thrall:

While I live and forget

Dream, truth and all.

Thou art more fresh than I,

Rose, sweet and red:

Salt on my pale cheeks lie

The tears I shed.

4
THE CLIFF-TOP

The cliff-top has a carpet

Of lilac, gold and green:

The blue sky bounds the ocean

The white clouds scud between.

A flock of gulls are wheeling

And wailing round my seat;

Above my head the heaven,

The sea beneath my feet.

THE OCEAN.

Were I a cloud I’d gather

My skirts up in the air,

And fly I well know whither,

And rest I well know where.

As pointed the star surely,

The legend tells of old,

Where the wise kings might offer

Myrrh, frankincense, and gold;

Above the house I’d hover

Where dwells my love, and wait

Till haply I might spy her

Throw back the garden-gate.

There in the summer evening

I would bedeck the moon;

I would float down and screen her

From the sun’s rays at noon;

And if her flowers should languish,

Or wither in the drought,

Upon her tall white lilies

I’d pour my heart’s blood out:

So if she wore one only,

And shook not out the rain,

Were I a cloud, O cloudlet,

I had not lived in vain.

[A cloud speaks.

A CLOUD.

But were I thou, O ocean,

I would not chafe and fret

As thou, because a limit

To thy desires is set.

I would be blue, and gentle,

Patient, and calm, and see

If my smiles might not tempt her,

My love, to come to me.

I’d make my depths transparent,

And still, that she should lean

O’er the boat’s edge to ponder

The sights that swam between.

I would command strange creatures,

Of bright hue and quick fin,

To stir the water near her,

And tempt her bare arm in.

I’d teach her spend the summer

With me: and I can tell,

That, were I thou, O ocean,

My love should love me well.

But on the mad cloud scudded,

The breeze it blew so stiff;

And the sad ocean bellowed,

And pounded at the cliff.

5

I heard a linnet courting

His lady in the spring:

His mates were idly sporting,

Nor stayed to hear him sing

His song of love.—

I fear my speech distorting

His tender love.

The phrases of his pleading

Were full of young delight;

And she that gave him heeding

Interpreted aright

His gay, sweet notes,—

So sadly marred in the reading,—

His tender notes.

And when he ceased, the hearer

Awaited the refrain,

Till swiftly perching nearer

He sang his song again,

His pretty song:—

Would that my verse spake clearer

His tender song!

Ye happy, airy creatures!

That in the merry spring

Think not of what misfeatures

Or cares the year may bring;

But unto love

Resign your simple natures,

To tender love.

6

Dear lady, when thou frownest,

And my true love despisest,

And all thy vows disownest

That sealed my venture wisest;

I think thy pride’s displeasure

Neglects a matchless treasure

Exceeding price and measure.

But when again thou smilest,

And love for love returnest,

And fear with joy beguilest,

And takest truth in earnest;

Then, though I sheer adore thee,

The sum of my love for thee

Seems poor, scant, and unworthy.

7

I will not let thee go.

Ends all our month-long love in this?

Can it be summed up so,

Quit in a single kiss?

I will not let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

If thy words’ breath could scare thy deeds,

As the soft south can blow

And toss the feathered seeds,

Then might I let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

Had not the great sun seen, I might;

Or were he reckoned slow

To bring the false to light,

Then might I let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

The stars that crowd the summer skies

Have watched us so below

With all their million eyes,

I dare not let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

Have we not chid the changeful moon,

Now rising late, and now

Because she set too soon,

And shall I let thee go?

I will not let thee go.

Have not the young flowers been content,

Plucked ere their buds could blow,

To seal our sacrament?