Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO ROBERT CALVERLEY TREVELYAN & ELIZABETH TREVELYAN, by GORDON BOTTOMLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO ROBERT CALVERLEY TREVELYAN & ELIZABETH TREVELYAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When one in java and cathay
Last Line: Had I not journeyed at your side.
Subject(s): Friendship; Travel; Journeys; Trips


WHEN one in Java and Cathay
And one beside the Zuyder Zee
Kept long and Wintry holiday,

I dwelt upon your mountain height.
In many a silent Surrey night
After the yellow Winter light

Had sunk behind dark Holmbury Hill,
Within the house so warm and still
I went from room to room until

Their twilit shadows, their echoes' play
Brought touch and presence from far away,
From Yang-tse-Kiang and Zuyder Zee.

And as I turn from page to page,
Looking back in middle age
On my most cherished pilgrimage --

The quest of beauty by word and sound --
I reach no prospect, I touch no ground
Where something of you is not found.

Here is a verse that came to me
Among your books; and your roof-tree
Sheltered the music that set free

This passage here, the cadence there:
Here is a poem that you made fair
To me with praise one evening where

Sunset waters of Wales enchanted
All we saw and thought and wanted,
And the low sun-rays burned and slanted

On Idris' top among the haze:
And here 's an echo of great days
Past all oblivion and praise

In Well Knowe garden when you brought
By genial scholarship, friendly thought,
Me to the gates of Greece, and caught

The living voice of AEschylus
In English words, that made 'twixt us
A bond, vivid and glorious,

Of momentary unison,
Sharing anew that deed long done,
In poetry and delight at one.

Best of my friends, the best is told;
There is little left but growing old,
When beauty withdraws and art turns cold;

I have made more verses than I shall make,
I have gathered them here for you to take --
If you will take them -- for the sake

Of the sick isolated years
That you made rich among their cares,
Their wearinesses and their fears;

And for the knowledge that you alone
By fellowship in our art have shewn
Things to me I must make my own

Upon the quest that has been my pride --
So that my reach had been less wide
Had I not journeyed at your side.





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