Eros
Eros
Original Text
Poetical Works of Robert Bridges with The Testament of Beauty
but excluding the eight drama, 2nd edn. (London: Geoffrey Cumberlege,
Oxford University Press, 1953): 348.
2Thou idol of the human race,
3Thou tyrant of the human heart,
4The flower of lovely youth that art;
5Yea, and that standest in thy youth
6An image of eternal Truth,
7With thy exuberant flesh so fair,
10Time had decayed the colours warm;
11Like to his gods in thy proud dress,
12Thy starry sheen of nakedness.
13Surely thy body is thy mind,
14For in thy face is nought to find,
15Only thy soft unchristen'd smile,
16That shadows neither love nor guile,
17But shameless will and power immense,
18In secret sensuous innocence.
19O king of joy, what is thy thought?
20I dream thou knowest it is nought,
21And wouldst in darkness come, but thou
22Makest the light where'er thou go.
23Ah yet no victim of thy grace,
24None who e'er long'd for thy embrace,
25Hath cared to look upon thy face.
Notes
1] The title is in Greek. Back to Line
8] Pheidias: Greek sculptor, 5th cent. B.C. Back to Line
9] marmoreal: marble, marbled. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1899
Publication Notes
New Poems
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003