The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas

Name: The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas
Author: Bridges, Robert

Bridges, Robert

English poetry

But onward she with fading tracks of flame
    Sped swiftly, till she reacht her journey's end:
    And when within the house of Zeus she came,
    She pray'd the Sire of Heaven that he would lend
    Hermes, the Argus-slayer, for her hest;
    And he being granted her at her request,
    She went forthwith to seek him and to send.


    9

      Who happ'd within the palace then to wait
    Upon the almighty pleasure; and her tale
    Was quickly told, and he made answer straight
    That he would find the truant without fail;
    Asking the goddess by what signs her slave
    Might best be known, and what the price she gave
    For capture, or admitted for the bail.


    10

    All which he took his silver stile to write
    In letters large upon a waxed board;
    Her age and name, her colour, face and height,
    Her home, and parentage, and the reward:
    And then read o'er as 'twas to be proclaim'd.
    And she took oath to give the price she named,
    Without demur, when Psyche was restored.


    11

    Then on his head he closely set his cap
    With earèd wings erect, and o'er his knee
    He cross'd each foot in turn to prove the strap
    That bound his wingèd sandals, and shook free
    His chlamys, and gat up, and in his hand
    Taking his fair white-ribbon'd herald's wand,
    Lept forth on air, accoutred cap-a-pè.


    12

    And piloting along the mid-day sky,
    Held southward, till the narrow map of Crete
    Lay like a fleck in azure 'neath his eye;
    When down he came, and as an eagle fleet
    Drops in some combe, then checks his headlong stoop
    With wide-flung wing, wheeling in level swoop
    To strike the bleating quarry with his feet,


    13

    Thus he alighted; and in every town
    In all the isle before the close of day
    Had cried the message, which he carried down,
    Of Psyche, Aphrodite's runaway;
    That whosoever found the same and caught,
    And by such time unto her temple brought,
    To him the goddess would this guerdon pay:


    14

    SIX HONIED KISSES FROM HER ROSY MOUTH
    WOULD CYTHEREA GIVE, AND ONE BESIDE
    TO QUENCH AT HEART FOR AYE LOVE'S MORTAL DROUTH:
    BUT UNTO HIM THAT HID HER, WOE BETIDE!
    Which now was on all tongues, and Psyche's name
    Herself o'erheard, or ever nigh she came
    To Aphrodite's temple where she hied.


    15

    When since she found her way to heaven was safe,
    She only wisht to make it soon and sure;
    Nor fear'd to meet the goddess in her chafe,
    So she her self-surrender might secure,
    And not be given of other for the price;
    Nor was there need of any artifice
    Her once resplendent beauty to obscure.


    16

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight DramasBridges, Robert

General

The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas

Bridges, Robert

English poetry

But onward she with fading tracks of flame
    Sped swiftly, till she reacht her journey's end:
    And when within the house of Zeus she came,
    She pray'd the Sire of Heaven that he would lend
    Hermes, the Argus-slayer, for her hest;
    And he being granted her at her request,
    She went forthwith to seek him and to send.


    9

      Who happ'd within the palace then to wait
    Upon the almighty pleasure; and her tale
    Was quickly told, and he made answer straight
    That he would find the truant without fail;
    Asking the goddess by what signs her slave
    Might best be known, and what the price she gave
    For capture, or admitted for the bail.


    10

    All which he took his silver stile to write
    In letters large upon a waxed board;
    Her age and name, her colour, face and height,
    Her home, and parentage, and the reward:
    And then read o'er as 'twas to be proclaim'd.
    And she took oath to give the price she named,
    Without demur, when Psyche was restored.


    11

    Then on his head he closely set his cap
    With earèd wings erect, and o'er his knee
    He cross'd each foot in turn to prove the strap
    That bound his wingèd sandals, and shook free
    His chlamys, and gat up, and in his hand
    Taking his fair white-ribbon'd herald's wand,
    Lept forth on air, accoutred cap-a-pè.


    12

    And piloting along the mid-day sky,
    Held southward, till the narrow map of Crete
    Lay like a fleck in azure 'neath his eye;
    When down he came, and as an eagle fleet
    Drops in some combe, then checks his headlong stoop
    With wide-flung wing, wheeling in level swoop
    To strike the bleating quarry with his feet,


    13

    Thus he alighted; and in every town
    In all the isle before the close of day
    Had cried the message, which he carried down,
    Of Psyche, Aphrodite's runaway;
    That whosoever found the same and caught,
    And by such time unto her temple brought,
    To him the goddess would this guerdon pay:


    14

    SIX HONIED KISSES FROM HER ROSY MOUTH
    WOULD CYTHEREA GIVE, AND ONE BESIDE
    TO QUENCH AT HEART FOR AYE LOVE'S MORTAL DROUTH:
    BUT UNTO HIM THAT HID HER, WOE BETIDE!
    Which now was on all tongues, and Psyche's name
    Herself o'erheard, or ever nigh she came
    To Aphrodite's temple where she hied.


    15

    When since she found her way to heaven was safe,
    She only wisht to make it soon and sure;
    Nor fear'd to meet the goddess in her chafe,
    So she her self-surrender might secure,
    And not be given of other for the price;
    Nor was there need of any artifice
    Her once resplendent beauty to obscure.


    16

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas

The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas

No reviews yet