English poet (1844-1930)
O youth whose hope is high,
Who dost to Truth aspire,
Whether thou live or die,
O look not back nor tire.
ROBERT BRIDGES
O Youth Whose Hope is High
When first we met we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"When First We Met"
Pure Reason left to herself
relieth on axioms and essential premises
which she can neither question nor resolve.
ROBERT BRIDGES
The Testament of Beauty
Smile of love, a flower planted,
Sprung in the garden of joy that art:
Eyes that shine with a glow enchanted,
Whose spreading fires encircle my heart,
And warm with a noon-ray drenched in fire
My land of delight, my land of desire!
ROBERT BRIDGES
"Fire of Heaven"
When June is come, then all the day
I'll sit with my love in the scented hay:
And watch the sunshot palaces high,
That the white clouds build in the breezy sky.
She singeth, and I do make her a song,
And read sweet poems the whole day long:
Unseen as we lie in our haybuilt home.
O life is delight when June is come.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"When June is Come"
The evening darkens over
After a day so bright,
The windcapt waves discover
That wild will be the night.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"The Evening Darkens Over"
From Adam's wife, that proved a curse
Though God had made her for a blessing,
All women born are so perverse
No man need boast their love possessing.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"All Women Born Are So Perverse"
For beauty being the best of all we know
Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims
Of nature.
ROBERT BRIDGES
The Growth of Love
'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.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"Elegy"
She has learnt the language of love
From lips that laugh in the sun,
Where the skies are so clear above,
Her eyes fresh blue have won.
But oh be still my heart!
Will she yet remember the day
Her tears o'er our kiss did run,
The day that she went away?
ROBERT BRIDGES
"She is Coming My Love O'er the Sea"
There's not a ship in sight;
And as the sun goes under
Thick clouds conspire to cover
The moon that should rise yonder.
Thou art alone, fond lover.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"The Evening Darkens Over"
The ground-root folly of this piteous philanthropy
is thinking to distribute indivisibles,
and make equality in things incommensurable:
forged under such delusions, all Utopias
are castles in the air or counsels of despair.
ROBERT BRIDGES
The Testament of Beauty
That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune.
ROBERT BRIDGES
attributed, Naturalopy: The Complete Reference
The idle life I lead
Is like a pleasant sleep,
Wherein I rest and heed
The dreams that by me sweep.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"The Idle Life I Lead"
Solemn is sleep, O sea,
When thou art nigh to the bed:
And Death is terror to me,
When thou dost talk of the dead.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"Night by Night as I Lie"
When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town.
ROBERT BRIDGES
London Snow
Weep not today: why should this sadness be?
Learn in present fears
To o'ermaster those tears
That unhindered conquer thee.
ROBERT BRIDGES
The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges
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.
ROBERT BRIDGES
"Elegy"
Since to be loved endures,
To love is wise.
ROBERT BRIDGES
Since to be Loved Endures