Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 2

Chapter 90: 5

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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.

5

So sweet love seemed that April morn,

When first we kissed beside the thorn,

So strangely sweet, it was not strange

We thought that love could never change.

But I can tell—let truth be told—

That love will change in growing old;

Though day by day is nought to see,

So delicate his motions be.

And in the end ’twill come to pass

Quite to forget what once he was,

Nor even in fancy to recall

The pleasure that was all in all.

His little spring, that sweet we found,

So deep in summer floods is drowned,

I wonder, bathed in joy complete,

How love so young could be so sweet.