Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Volume 1

PROMETHEUS COMING ON EARTH TO GIVE FIRE TO MEN APPEARS BEFORE THE PALACE OF INACHUS IN ARGOS ON A FESTIVAL OF ZEUS · HE INTERRUPTS THE CEREMONY BY ANNOUNCING FIRE AND PERSUADES...

_Pr._ Thou say’st I am mad, and of my sober words Hast called those impious which thou fearest true, Those which thou knowest good, incredible. Consider ere thou judge: be first...

_Ar._ O doleful change, I came In pious purpose, nay, I heard within 891 The hymn to glorious Zeus: I rose and said, The mighty god now bends, he thrusts aside His heavenly supp...

_In._ No need to search--we shall not see him more. We look in vain. The high gods when they choose Put on and off the solid visible shape Which more deceives our hasty sense, t...

But ere unto the snowy peak they came Of that stormshapen pyramid so high, ’Twas evening, and with footsteps slow and lame They gather’d up their lagging company: And then her s...

Then Psyche when she heard their wailful din, And saw their countenances wan and worn With travel, vigil, and disfiguring sin, Their hair dishevel’d and their habits torn, For t...

Then said the snowy gull, ‘O heavenly queen, What is my knowledge, who am but a bird? Yet is she only mortal, as I ween, And namèd Psyche, if I rightly heard.’— But Aphrodite’s...

‘I know thy trick; and thou art one of them Who steal love’s favour in the gentle way, Wearing submission for a diadem, Patience and suffering for thy rich array: Thou wilt be m...

‘O Psyche,’ thus, and kissing her he cried, ‘O simple-hearted Psyche, once again Hast thou thy foolish longing gratified, A second time hath prying been thy bane. But lo! I, lov...

The work is done, and from the fingers fall The bloodwarm tools that brought the labour thro’: The tasking eye that overrunneth all Rests, and affirms there is no more to do. No...

I will be what God made me, nor protest Against the bent of genius in my time, That science of my friends robs all the best, While I love beauty, and was born to rhyme. Be they...