The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke

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Contents:

Introduction, by George Edward Woodberry

1905-1908

Second Best	Here in the dark, O heart; Alone with the enduring Earth, and Night,
Day That I Have Loved	Tenderly, day that I have loved, I close your eyes,       And smooth your quiet brow, and fold your thin dead hands.
Sleeping Out: Full Moon	They sleep within. . . . I cower to the earth, I waking, I only.
In Examination	Lo! from quiet skies In through the window my Lord the Sun!
Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening	I'd watched the sorrow of the evening sky, And smelt the sea, and earth, and the warm clover,
Wagner	Creeps in half wanton, half asleep,       One with a fat wide hairless face.
The Vision of the Archangels	Slowly up silent peaks, the white edge of the world,       Trod four archangels, clear against the unheeding sky,
Seaside	Swiftly out from the friendly lilt of the band,       The crowd's good laughter, the loved eyes of men,
On the Death of Smet-Smet, the Hippopotamus-Goddess	She was wrinkled and huge and hideous? She was our Mother. She was lustful and lewd? -- - but a God; we had none other.
The Song of the Pilgrims	What light of unremembered skies Hast thou relumed within our eyes,
The Song of the Beasts	Come away! Come away! Ye are sober and dull through the common day,
Failure	Because God put His adamantine fate       Between my sullen heart and its desire,
Ante Aram	Before thy shrine I kneel, an unknown worshipper,       Chanting strange hymns to thee and sorrowful litanies,
Dawn	Opposite me two Germans snore and sweat.       Through sullen swirling gloom we jolt and roar.
The Call	Out of the nothingness of sleep,       The slow dreams of Eternity,
The Wayfarers	Is it the hour? We leave this resting-place       Made fair by one another for a while.
The Beginning	Some day I shall rise and leave my friends And seek you again through the world's far ends,

Sonnet	Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire       Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Sonnet	I said I splendidly loved you; it's not true.       Such long swift tides stir not a land-locked sea.
Success	I think if you had loved me when I wanted;       If I'd looked up one day, and seen your eyes,
Dust	When the white flame in us is gone,       And we that lost the world's delight
Kindliness	When love has changed to kindliness -- - Oh, love, our hungry lips, that press
Mummia	As those of old drank mummia       To fire their limbs of lead,
The Fish	In a cool curving world he lies And ripples with dark ecstasies.
Thoughts on the Shape of the Human Body	How can we find? how can we rest? how can We, being gods, win joy, or peace, being man?
Flight	Voices out of the shade that cried,       And long noon in the hot calm places,
The Hill	Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,       Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
The One Before the Last	I dreamt I was in love again       With the One Before the Last,
The Jolly Company	The stars, a jolly company,       I envied, straying late and lonely;
The Life Beyond	He wakes, who never thought to wake again,       Who held the end was Death. He opens eyes
Lines Written in the Belief That the Ancient Roman Festival of the Dead Was Called Ambarvalia	Swings the way still by hollow and hill,       And all the world's a song;
Dead Men's Love	There was a damned successful Poet;       There was a Woman like the Sun.
Town and Country	Here, where love's stuff is body, arm and side       Are stabbing-sweet 'gainst chair and lamp and wall.
Paralysis	For moveless limbs no pity I crave,       That never were swift! Still all I prize,
Menelaus and Helen	Hot through Troy's ruin Menelaus broke       To Priam's palace, sword in hand, to sate
Libido	How should I know? The enormous wheels of will       Drove me cold-eyed on tired and sleepless feet.
Jealousy	When I see you, who were so wise and cool, Gazing with silly sickness on that fool
Blue Evening	My restless blood now lies a-quiver,       Knowing that always, exquisitely,
The Charm	In darkness the loud sea makes moan; And earth is shaken, and all evils creep
Finding	From the candles and dumb shadows,       And the house where love had died,
Song	"Oh! Love," they said, "is King of Kings,       And Triumph is his crown.
The Voice	Safe in the magic of my woods       I lay, and watched the dying light.
Dining-Room Tea	When you were there, and you, and you, Happiness crowned the night; I too,
The Goddess in the Wood	In a flowered dell the Lady Venus stood,       Amazed with sorrow. Down the morning one
A Channel Passage	The damned ship lurched and slithered. Quiet and quick       My cold gorge rose; the long sea rolled; I knew
Victory	All night the ways of Heaven were desolate,       Long roads across a gleaming empty sky.
Day and Night	Through my heart's palace Thoughts unnumbered throng;       And there, most quiet and, as a child, most wise,

Choriambics -- I	Ah! not now, when desire burns, and the wind calls, and the suns of spring Light-foot dance in the woods, whisper of life, woo me to wayfaring;
Choriambics -- II	Here the flame that was ash, shrine that was void, lost in the haunted wood, I have tended and loved, year upon year, I in the solitude
Desertion	So light we were, so right we were, so fair faith shone, And the way was laid so certainly, that, when I'd gone,

I. Peace	Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour, And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
II. Safety	Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest       He who has found our hid security,
III. The Dead	Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!       There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
IV. The Dead	These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,       Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth.
V. The Soldier	If I should die, think only this of me:       That there's some corner of a foreign field
The Treasure	When colour goes home into the eyes,       And lights that shine are shut again

Tiare Tahiti	Mamua, when our laughter ends, And hearts and bodies, brown as white,
Retrospect	In your arms was still delight, Quiet as a street at night;
The Great Lover	I have been so great a lover: filled my days So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,
Heaven	Fish (fly-replete, in depth of June, Dawdling away their wat'ry noon)
Doubts	When she sleeps, her soul, I know, Goes a wanderer on the air,
There's Wisdom in Women	"Oh love is fair, and love is rare;" my dear one she said, "But love goes lightly over." I bowed her foolish head,
He Wonders Whether to Praise or to Blame Her	I have peace to weigh your worth, now all is over,       But if to praise or blame you, cannot say.
A Memory (From a sonnet-sequence)	Somewhile before the dawn I rose, and stept       Softly along the dim way to your room,
One Day	Today I have been happy. All the day       I held the memory of you, and wove
Waikiki	Warm perfumes like a breath from vine and tree       Drift down the darkness. Plangent, hidden from eyes
Hauntings	In the grey tumult of these after years       Oft silence falls; the incessant wranglers part;
Sonnet (Suggested by some of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research)	Not with vain tears, when we're beyond the sun, We'll beat on the substantial doors, nor tread
Clouds	Down the blue night the unending columns press       In noiseless tumult, break and wave and flow,
Mutability	They say there's a high windless world and strange,       Out of the wash of days and temporal tide,

The Busy Heart	Now that we've done our best and worst, and parted,       I would fill my mind with thoughts that will not rend.
Love	Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate,       Where that comes in that shall not go again;
Unfortunate	Heart, you are restless as a paper scrap       That's tossed down dusty pavements by the wind;
The Chilterns	Your hands, my dear, adorable,       Your lips of tenderness
Home	I came back late and tired last night       Into my little room,
The Night Journey	Hands and lit faces eddy to a line;       The dazed last minutes click; the clamour dies.
Song	All suddenly the wind comes soft,       And Spring is here again;
Beauty and Beauty	When Beauty and Beauty meet       All naked, fair to fair,
The Way That Lovers Use	The way that lovers use is this;       They bow, catch hands, with never a word,
Mary and Gabriel	Young Mary, loitering once her garden way, Felt a warm splendour grow in the April day,
The Funeral of Youth: Threnody	The day that youth had died, There came to his grave-side,

The Old Vicarage, Grantchester

Just now the lilac is in bloom, All before my little room;

A Biographical Note by Margaret Lavington.