Thought for the day

Edwin Arlington Robinson's, Eros Turannos, read by Richard Wallace

Eros Turannos 

BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

She fears him, and will always ask 
   What fated her to choose him; 
She meets in his engaging mask                   
   All reasons to refuse him; 
But what she meets and what she fears 
Are less than are the downward years, 
Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs 
   Of age, were she to lose him. 

Between a blurred sagacity 
   That once had power to sound him, 
And Love, that will not let him be 
   The Judas that she found him, 
Her pride assuages her almost, 
As if it were alone the cost.— 
He sees that he will not be lost, 
   And waits and looks around him. 

A sense of ocean and old trees 
   Envelops and allures him; 
Tradition, touching all he sees 
   Beguiles and reassures him; 
And all her doubts of what he says 
Are dimmed with what she knows of days— 
Till even prejudice delays 
   And fades, and she secures him. 

The falling leaf inaugurates 
   The reign of her confusion; 
The pounding wave reverberates 
   The dirge of her illusion; 
And home, where passion lived and died, 
Becomes a place where she can hide, 
While all the town and harbor side 
   Vibrate with her seclusion. 

We tell you, tapping on our brows, 
   The story as it should be,— 
As if the story of a house 
   Were told, or ever could be; 
We’ll have no kindly veil between 
Her visions and those we have seen,— 
As if we guessed what hers have been, 
   Or what they are or would be. 

Meanwhile we do no harm; for they 
   That with a god have striven, 
Not hearing much of what we say, 
   Take what the god has given; 
Though like waves breaking it may be, 
Or like a changed familiar tree, 
Or like a stairway to the sea 
   Where down the blind are driven.
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We've seen lots of amazing work in the visitor services department so far this year. SMR stewards have generated over £4,500 donations between January and April 2026 and welcomed over 5000 visitors to the Church. We are welcoming new tour guides to the front of house team with the eventual goal to expand the number of tours we are able to offer to the public. Janet and Reuben have both done their first tours and have received wonderful reviews from visitors. If you are interested in volunteering on the front of house team please contact me on lucy.marshall@stmaryredcliffe.co.uk . We have had some amazing feedback from our outreach events as we aim to welcome not only those familiar with SMR but also those that have never been before. These have included film screenings, talks and most recently the Redcliffe Sessions which raised just under £150 for our Lent charity partner, CALM. Thank you to all those who have supported these. The next Redcliffe Session will be in support of SMR and will feature Bristol band Dogsbody on guitar, cello and violin, and songwriter, Alex Pester on 13th June. I am very excited looking into the rest of 2026 for our future events run both in house and by external hirers, more information of which can be found on our website. If you are interested in volunteering at any future SMR events please let me know! Lucy Marshall Visitor Services Coordinator 06.05.2026