| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| II. 1908–1911 |
| 28. A Channel Passage |
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| THE DAMNED ship lurched and slithered. Quiet and quick | |
| My cold gorge rose; the long sea rolled; I knew | |
| I must think hard of something, or be sick; | |
| And could think hard of only one thing—you! | |
| You, you alone could hold my fancy ever! | 5 |
| And with you memories come, sharp pain, and dole. | |
| Now there’s a choice—heartache or tortured liver! | |
| A sea-sick body, or a you-sick soul! | |
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| Do I forget you? Retchings twist and tie me, | |
| Old meat, good meals, brown gobbets, up I throw. | 10 |
| Do I remember? Acrid return and slimy, | |
| The sobs and slobber of a last years woe. | |
| And still the sick ship rolls. ’Tis hard, I tell ye, | |
| To choose ’twixt love and nausea, heart and belly. | |
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