A PASSER BY – ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES

A PASSER BY – ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES

Robert Seymour Bridges was born on 23 October 1844. He was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He also studied medicine and practised it for some time, but later settled to a full-time literary career. In 1913, one year before the World War broke outhe was made Poet Laureate of England. “The Testament of Beauty’, published in 1929, was printed fourteen times in the very first year. He died on 21 April 1930.

Poem:

Whither, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding,

     Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West,

That fearest nor sea rising, not sky clouding,

     Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest?

Ah! soon, when Winter has all our vales opprest.

     When skies are cold and misty, and hail is hurling,

Wilt thou glide on the blue Pacific, or rest

     In summer haven asleep, thy white sails furling?

I there before thee, in the country that well thou knowest,

     Already arrived am inhaling the odorous air:

I watch thee enter unerringly where thou goest,

     And anchor queen of the strange shipping there,

Thy sails for awnings spread, thy masts bare;

     Nor is aught from the foaming reef to the snow-capped, grandest

Peak, that is over the feathery palms more fair

     Than thou, so upright, so stately, and still thou standest.

And yet, O splendid ship, unhailed and nameless,

     I know not if, aiming a fancy, I rightly divine

That thou hast a purpose joyful, a courage blameless,

Thy port assured in a happier land than mine.

      But for all I have given thee, beauty enough is thine,

As thou, aslant with trim tackle and shrouding,

      From the proud nostril curve of a prow’s line

In the offing scatterest foam, thy white sails crowding.

‘A Passer By’ is one of Robert Bridges’ short but beautiful poems. In fact Robert Bridges is at his best in lyrics of this kind.

The poet is watching a ship that sails before him. From its movement he gathers the impression that the ship is not afraid of the troublesome winter which is fast approaching. When the poet and his fellowmen are subjected to the miseries of winter the ‘passer by’ will be on the peaceful Pacific Ocean. Or else it would have reached its destination in some distant land where it is summer.

The poet has reached the foreign harbour in imagination, and is watching the ship entering it without any difficulty. The sails have been removed and the masts are all bare again. The background, with the foaming reef, the snow covered peaks and the feathery palm trees, is no doubt beautiful. But nothing in the entire area is more beautiful than the ship itself, because it is so silent, upright and majestic.

The poet returns from the world of imagination to reality, and rakes a second look at the ship He cannot read its name, as the ship is sailing at a distance. All the same it is evident to him that it is inspired by a noble purpose, a blameless courage, and a sure hope of reaching is destination. The very appearance of the of the ship with so many sails, masts, ropes and other mechanical devices is really very impressive. Equally impressive is its majestic movement.

In this beautiful poem, Robert Bridges, with the colouring of his imagination, has immortalized a familiar sight of a ship sailing on the sea. The description is so realistic that the reader can visualize the scene without straining his imagination. The poem also reveals the poet’s familiarity with ships and sailing equipments.

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