October and Other Poems with Occasional Verses on the War

Robert Bridges

Robert Bridges

October and Other Poems / with Occasional Verses on the War

PREFACE

This miscellaneous volume is composed of three sections. The first twelve poems were written in 1913, and printed privately by Mr. Hornby in 1914.

The last of these poems proved to be a “war poem,” and on that follow eighteen pieces which were called forth on occasion during the War, the last being a broadsheet on the surrender of the German ships. All of these verses appeared in some journal or serial. There were a few others, but they are not included in this collection, either because they are lost, or because they show decidedly inferior claims to salvage.

The last six poems or sonnets are of various dates.

В В В В R. B.

OCTOBER

April adance in play

met with his lover May

where she came garlanded.

The blossoming boughs o’erhead

were thrill’d to bursting by

the dazzle from the sky

and the wild music there

that shook the odorous air.

Each moment some new birth

hasten’d to deck the earth

in the gay sunbeams.

Between their kisses dreams:

And dream and kiss were rife

with laughter of mortal life.

But this late day of golden fall

is still as a picture upon a wall

or a poem in a book lying open unread.

Or whatever else is shrined

when the Virgin hath vanishГЁd:

Footsteps of eternal Mind

on the path of the dead.

THE FLOWERING TREE

What Fairy fann’d my dreams

while I slept in the sun?

As if a flowering tree

were standing over me:

Its young stem strong and lithe

went branching overhead

And willowy sprays around

fell tasseling to the ground

All with wild blossom gay

as is the cherry in May

When her fresh flaunt of leaf

gives crowns of golden green.

The sunlight was enmesh’d

in the shifting splendour

And I saw through on high

to soft lakes of blue sky:

Ne’er was mortal slumber

so lapt in luxury.

Rather—Endymion—

would I sleep in the sun

Neath the trees divinely

with day’s azure above

When my love of Beauty

is met by beauty’s love.

So I slept enchanted

under my loving tree

Till from his late resting

the sweet songster of night

Rousing awaken’d me:

Then! this—the birdis note—

Was the voice of thy throat

which thou gav’st me to kiss.

NOEL: CHRISTMAS EVE, 1913

Pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis

A frosty Christmas Eve

when the stars were shining

Fared I forth alone

where westward falls the hill,

And from many a village

in the water’d valley

Distant music reach’d me

peals of bells aringing:

The constellated sounds

ran sprinkling on earth’s floor

As the dark vault above

with stars was spangled o’er.

Then sped my thought to keep

that first Christmas of all

When the shepherds watching

by their folds ere the dawn

Heard music in the fields

and marveling could not tell

Whether it were angels

or the bright stars singing.

Now blessed be the tow’rs

that crown England so fair

That stand up strong in prayer

unto God for our souls:

Blessed be their founders

(said I) an’ our country folk

Who are ringing for Christ

in the belfries to-night

With arms lifted to clutch

the rattling ropes that race

Into the dark above

and the mad romping din.

But to me heard afar

it was starry music

Angels’ song, comforting

as the comfort of Christ

When he spake tenderly

to his sorrowful flock:

The old words came to me

by the riches of time

Mellow’d and transfigured

as I stood on the hill

Heark’ning in the aspect

of th’ eternal silence.

IN DER FREMDE

Ah! wild-hearted wand’rer

far in the world away

Restless nor knowest why

only thou canst not stay

And now turnest trembling

hearing the wind to sigh:

’Twas thy lover calling

whom thou didst leave forby.

So faint and yet so far

so far and yet so fain—

“Return belov’d to me”

but thou must onward strain: