Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 2

Chapter 78: 24

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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.

24

Ye thrilled me once, ye mournful strains,

Ye anthems of plaintive woe,

My spirit was sad when I was young;

Ah sorrowful long-ago!

But since I have found the beauty of joy

I have done with proud dismay:

For howsoe’er man hug his care

The best of his art is gay.

And yet if voices of fancy’s choir

Again in mine ear awake

Your old lament, ’tis dear to me still,

Nor all for memory’s sake:

’Tis like the dirge of sorrow dead,

Whose tears are wiped away;

Or drops of the shower when rain is o’er,

That jewel the brightened day.