Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1050

 ROBERT BRIDGES

844 Pater Filio

JENSE with keenest edge unused,

Yet unstcePd by scathing fire; Lovely feet as yet unbruised

On the ways of dark desire, Sweetest hope that lookest smiling O'er the wilderness defiling!

��Why such beauty, to be blighted By the swarm of foul destruction ?

Why such innocence delighted, When sin stalks to thy seduction^

All the litanies e'er chaunted

Shall not keep thy faith undaunted.

��I have pray'd the sainted Morning Xo unclasp her hands to hold thee;

From resign ful Eve's adorning

Stol'n a robe of peace to enfold thee;

With all charms of man's contriving

Arm'd thee for thy lonely striving.

��Me too once unthinking Nature,

Whence Love's timeless mockery took me,- Fashion'd so divine a creature,

Yea, and like a beast forsook me. I forgave, but tell the measure Of her crime in thee, my treasure.

�� �