Poem by Robert Seymour Bridges

Shorter Poems. Book IV. 13. The Windmill

The green corn waving in the dale,
The ripe grass waving on the hill:
I lean across the paddock pale
And gaze upon the giddy mill.

Its hurtling sails a mighty sweep
Cut thro’ the air: with rushing sound
Each strikes in fury down the steep,
Rattles, and whirls in chase around.

Beside his sacks the miller stands
On high within the open door:
A book and pencil in his hands,
His grist and meal he reckoneth o’er.

His tireless merry slave the wind
Is busy with his work to-day:
From whencesoe’er, he comes to grind;
He hath a will and knows the way.

He gives the creaking sails a spin,
The circling millstones faster flee,
The shuddering timbers groan within,
And down the shoot the meal runs free.

The miller giveth him no thanks,
And doth not much his work o’erlook:
He stands beside the sacks, and ranks
The figures in his dusty book.

1. Shorter Poems. Book IV. 4. “The Clouds Have Left the Sky”
2. Shorter Poems. Book IV. 7. “Gáy Róbin Is Seen No More”
3. Shorter Poems. Book IV. 23. “The storm is over, the land hushes to rest”
4. Shorter Poems. Book V. 3. “Since to Be Loved Endures”
5. Shorter Poems. Book IV. 10. “O Love, my muse, how was’t for me”

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