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 | Poetical Works of Robert Bridges excluding the eight dramas |  |
8
THE CURFEW TOWER
Thro' innocent eyes at the world awond'ring
Nothing spake to me more superbly
Than the round bastion of Windsor's wall
Nothing spake to me more superbly
Than the round bastion of Windsor's wall
That warding the Castle's southern angle
An old inheritor of Norman prowess
Was call'd by the folk the Curfew Tow'r.
An old inheritor of Norman prowess
Was call'd by the folk the Curfew Tow'r.
Above the masonry's rugged courses
A turreted clock of Caroline fashion
Told time to the town in black and gold.
A turreted clock of Caroline fashion
Told time to the town in black and gold.
It charmed the hearts of Henry's scholars
As kingly a mentor of English story
As Homer's poem is of Ilion:
As kingly a mentor of English story
As Homer's poem is of Ilion:
483
Nor e'er in the landscape look'd it fairer
Than when we saw its white bulk halo'd
In a lattice of slender scaffoldings.
Than when we saw its white bulk halo'd
In a lattice of slender scaffoldings.
Month by month on the airy platforms
Workmen labour'd hacking and hoisting
Till again the tower was stript to the sun:
Workmen labour'd hacking and hoisting
Till again the tower was stript to the sun:
The old tow'r? Nay a new tow'r stood there
From footing to battlemented skyline
And topt with a cap the slice of a cone
From footing to battlemented skyline
And topt with a cap the slice of a cone
Archæologic and counterfeited
The smoothest thing in all the high-street
As Eton scholars to-day may see:
The smoothest thing in all the high-street
As Eton scholars to-day may see:
They—wherever else they find their wonder
And feed their boyhood on Time's enchantment—
See never the Tow'r that spoke to me.
And feed their boyhood on Time's enchantment—
See never the Tow'r that spoke to me.
| Poetical Works of Robert Bridges excluding the eight dramas | |