The Lost Bower

[poliphilo]

This is a long narrow house and on a rainy winter's day like today the corridors in the middle- upstairs and downstairs- never emerge from twilight.

There's a poem by E.B. Browning called the Lost Bower. Kipling quotes four lines of it and says that the fifth line is a disaster. The bit I know, the bit Kipling obviously loved, has been going through my head all morning.

"In the pleasant orchard closes
God bless all our gains say we,
But may God bless all our losses
Better suits with out degree."

I've been Googling for the missing line but the full poem seems to be unavailable on the Web.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

This is a long narrow house and on a rainy winter's day like today the corridors in the middle- upstairs and downstairs- never emerge from twilight.


...Sounds just like Blackwood. Do you see ghosts?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't. I'm as psychic as a house brick. But Ailz tells me there are lots of them about.