The Bridge

Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)



I have come a long way to-day:
On a strange bridge alone,
Remembering friends, old friends,
I rest, without smile or moan,
As they remember me without smile or moan.

All are behind, the kind
And the unkind too, no more
To-night than a dream. The stream
Runs softly yet drowns the Past,
The dark-lit stream has drowned the Future and the Past.

No traveller has rest more blest
Than this moment brief between
Two lives, when the Night's first lights
And shades hide what has never been,
Things goodlier, lovelier, dearer, than will be or have been.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 10, 2023

30 sec read
112

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXAA XXXBB XXXCC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 540
Words 100
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5

Edward Thomas

Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh poet and essayist. more…

All Edward Thomas poems | Edward Thomas Books

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