Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 2

Chapter 17: 15 RONDEAU

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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.

15
RONDEAU

His poisoned shafts, that fresh he dips

In juice of plants that no bee sips,

He takes, and with his bow renown’d

Goes out upon his hunting ground,

Hanging his quiver at his hips.

He draws them one by one, and clips

Their heads between his finger-tips,

And looses with a twanging sound

His poisoned shafts.

But if a maiden with her lips

Suck from the wound the blood that drips,

And drink the poison from the wound,

The simple remedy is found

That of their deadly terror strips

His poisoned shafts.