lyrical poetry - OUDL Home

"THE NINETIES"Fly with delight, fly hence !'Twas thine love's tender senseTo feast; now on thy bierBeau,ty shall shed a tear.Form at once so perfect and so natural repudiates thecharge of virtuosity, and it is but one of many thatdelight by the same grace and delicacy of form if someare animated by a warmer strain of feeling: " Assembleall ye maidens at the door," "Whither, O splendidship, thy white sails crowding," " Behold the radiantSpring," " Wherefore to-night so full of care," "Thoudidst delight my eyes," "The birds that sing onautumn eves," "Beautiful must the mountains bewhence ye come," andI never shall love the snow againSince Maurice died :With cornice drift it blocked the laneAnd sheeted in a desolate plainThe country side.The trees with silvery rime bedightTheir branches bare.By day no sun appeared ; by nightThe hidden moon shed thievish lightIn the misty air.Here and elsewhere Mr Bridges' treatment of Nature isnot quite that of any other poet. With no gospel ofNature, Wordsworthian or Meredithian, he is no meredescriptive poet. He feels what he portrays or suggests,witness "The north wind came up yesternight," andin irregular measures, "The storm is over, the landhushes to rest," andNow thin mists temper the slow-ripening beamsOf the September sun,131