Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 2

Chapter 76: 22

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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.

22

When my love was away,

Full three days were not sped,

I caught my fancy astray

Thinking if she were dead,

And I alone, alone:

It seemed in my misery

In all the world was none

Ever so lone as I.

I wept; but it did not shame

Nor comfort my heart: away

I rode as I might, and came

To my love at close of day.

The sight of her stilled my fears,

My fairest-hearted love:

And yet in her eyes were tears:

Which when I questioned of,

O now thou art come, she cried,

’Tis fled: but I thought to-day

I never could here abide,

If thou wert longer away.