In autumn moonlight, when the white air wan
Is fragrant in the wake of summer hence,
‘Tis sweet to sit entranced, and muse thereon
In melancholy and godlike indolence:
When the proud spirit, lull’d by mortal prime
To fond pretence of immortality.
Vieweth all moments from the birth of time,
All things whate’er have been or yet shall be.
And like the garden where the year is spent,
The ruin of old life is full of yearning,
Mingling poetic rapture of lament
With flowers and sunshine of spring’s sure returning;
Only in visions of the white air wan
By godlike fancy seized and dwelt upon.

Robert Seymour Bridges

 

 

 

Biograph:

Like the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Bridges started out as a physician, but at age 40 he changed careers and never looked back.  He was born on October 23, 1844 in Walmer, Kent, England at 10:49 am according to Marc Jones.  We found that time fast and rectified it to 10:37 AM, giving him 13 Sagittarius Rising or “widows past brought to light.”  This Sabian symbol suggests one’s agony, as they support others while not taking his own advice.  The keyword is Rectification, which is what Bridges did when he finally did when the physician decided once and for all, to “heal thyself.”  Once he started on that path, he found success and became Britain’s  Poet Laureate.   His daughter was also a poet.

 

Bridges is a see-saw showing the two parts of his life that fought for his attention, his very public southern life as a doctor and his private life as a poet.  The lord of his ascendant is Jupiter, found in Gemini hinting at the lung problems that would fell him later on.  It is also square asteroid Shakespeare on the sixth house cusp putting stress on a weak point until eventually the break of his see-saw becomes complete he realizes that his childhood love of harmony (asteroid Child conjunct Venus) sextile asteroid Poesy cannot be denied.  Indeed, Bridges “rectifies himself” and becomes a poet.

It should not have been a surprise. While asteroid Hippocrates (the father of medicine) is wedded to Juno and his work, it is also inconjunct Jupiter and the Moon in the fourth — there were probably telltale signs that his health was not all it was thought and since Jupiter is trine Poesy, and semi-sextile Polyhymnia he had always enjoyed the poetical muse.   The lilac vertical dotted line has asteroid Poesy opposite this Part of Fortune at 10.34 Taurus, shows his reluctance to embrace his life’s work because he saw it as a “Red Cross nurse” and could no longer idealize that  Neptune  via its sextile to Vesta was not taking its toll from the long hard hours he was putting in as a medic.

Shakespeare and opposing Pallas forces Jupiter at 25 Pisces 15 to surrender and “fly its flag at half mast”  and admit defeat.  Eventually he did, and the change was wrought and the heavens sighed relief.