15. Dead Men’s Love. II. 1908–1911. Brooke, Rupert. 1916. Collected Poems

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916.

II. 1908–1911

15. Dead Men’s Love

THERE was a damned successful Poet;
There was a Woman like the Sun.
And they were dead. They did not know it.
They did not know their time was done.
They did not know his hymns	5
Were silence; and her limbs,
That had served Love so well,
Dust, and a filthy smell.

And so one day, as ever of old,
Hands out, they hurried, knee to knee;	10
On fire to cling and kiss and hold
And, in the other’s eyes, to see
Each his own tiny face,
And in that long embrace
Feel lip and breast grow warm	15
To breast and lip and arm.

So knee to knee they sped again,
And laugh to laugh they ran, I’m told,
Across the streets of Hell…
And then	20
They suddenly felt the wind blow cold,
And knew, so closely pressed,
Chill air on lip and breast,
And, with a sick surprise,
The emptiness of eyes.	25