Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 2

Chapter 113: 8

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About This Book

A compact collection of short lyrical poems that meditate on memory, seasonal change, love, and the natural world. Many pieces adopt an elegiac or contemplative tone, turning riverbanks, cliffs, gardens, and the sea into prompts for reflection on loss, longing, and the persistence of feeling. The verse mixes concise narrative moments, personified elements, and formal lyrical rhythms, producing musical and measured language. Poems are presented in grouped sections alongside newly gathered pieces and editorial notes, yielding a varied sequence of brief, reflective lyrics and conversational vignettes.

8

To my love I whisper, and say

Knowest thou why I love thee?—Nay:

Nay, she saith; O tell me again.—

When in her ear the secret I tell,

She smileth with joy incredible—

Ha! she is vain—O Nay—

Then tell us!—Nay, O nay.

But this is in my heart,

That Love is Nature’s perfect art,

And man hath got his fancy hence,

To clothe his thought in forms of sense.

Fair are thy works, O man, and fair

Thy dreams of soul in garments rare,

Beautiful past compare,

Yea, godlike when thou hast the skill

To steal a stir of the heavenly thrill:

But O, have care, have care!

’Tis envious even to dare:

And many a fiend is watching well

To flush thy reed with the fire of hell.