Robert Bridges

Awake, my heart, to be loved, awake, awake! The darkness silvers away, the morn doth break, It leaps in the sky.

When first we met we did not guess That Love would prove so hard a master.

And Reason kens he herits in A haunted house. Tenants unknown Assert their squalid lease of sin With earlier title than his own.

On such a night, when Air has loosed Its guardian grasp on blood and brain, Old terrors then of god or ghost Creep from their caves to life again.

The constellated sounds ran sprinkling on earth’s floor As the dark vault above with stars was spangled o’er.

Angels’ song, comforting as the comfort of Christ When he spake tenderly to his sorrowful flock.

Surely thy body is thy mind, For in thy face is nought to find, Only thy soft unchristened smile, That shadows neither love nor guile.

Why hast thou nothing in thy face? Thou idol of the human race, Thou tyrant of the human heart, The flower of lovely youth that art.

My delight and thy delight Walking, like two angels white, In the gardens of the night.

To-morrow it seem Like the empty words of a dream Remembered on waking.

I love all beauteous things, I seek and adore them.

Perfect little body, without fault or stain on thee, With promise of strength and manhood full and fair!

They gathered up the crystal manna to freeze Their tongues with tasting, their hands with snowballing; Or rioted in a drift, plunging up to the knees.

When men were all asleep the snow came flying, In large white flakes falling on the city brown, Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying, Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town.

For beauty being the best of all we know Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims Of nature.

Beneath the crisp and wintry carpet hid A million buds but stay their blossoming And trustful birds have built their nests amid The shuddering boughs, and only wait to sing Till one soft shower from the south shall bid And hither tempt the …

Poetry's magic lies in the imagery which satifies even without interpretation..it is accepted as easily as it was created.

Good melody is never out of fashion