Robert Bridges Quotes

Seeking unceasingly for the First Cause of All,
in question for what special purpose he was made,
Man, in the unsearchable darkness, knoweth one thing:
that as he is, so was he made; and if the Essence
and characteristic faculty of humanity
is our conscient Reason and our desire of knowledge,
that was Nature's Purpose in the making of man.

When Death to either shall come—
I pray it be first to me.

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

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

Scatter the clouds that hide
The face of heaven, and show
Where sweet peace doth abide,
Where Truth and Beauty grow.

But I can tell — let truth be told —
That love will change in growing old;
Though day by day is nought to see,
So delicate his motions be.

Beauty, the eternal Spouse of the Wisdom of God
and Angel of his Presence thru' all creation.

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

The storm is over, the land hushes to rest:
The tyrannous wind, its strength fordone,
Is fallen back in the west.

Whither, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding,
Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West,
That fearest nor sea rising, nor sky clouding,
Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest?

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

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