Paired poems

 

Sometimes when my lady sits by me

  My rapture's so great, that I tear

My mind from the thought that she's nigh me,

  And strive to forget that she's there.

And sometimes when she is away,

  Her absence so sorely does try me,

That I shut to my eyes, and assay

  To think she is there sitting by me.

 

-Robert Bridges

 

I've been dawdling my way through Robert Bridges lately, and when I read this one, it immediately made me think of a Hilaire Belloc poem with a similar twist:

 

How did the party go in Portman Square?

I cannot tell you; Juliet was not there.

And how did Lady Gaster's party go?

Juliet was next me and I do not know.

-Hilaire Belloc

 

Did Belloc (1870-1953) know the Robert Bridges (1844-1930) poem? Seems possible. The Bridges came out in a volume of 1890; the Belloc in a privately printed volume of 1920. All of Belloc's Juliet poems date from after the death of his wife in 1914, when he had a flirtation with a woman actually named Juliet.

 

I thought about titling this post The Second Time as Farce, but the first one is pretty witty, too. (And certainly not tragic.)