| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
| |
| V. The South Seas |
| 8. A Memory |
| |
(From a sonnet-sequence)
SOMEWHILE before the dawn I rose, and stept | |
| Softly along the dim way to your room, | |
| And found you sleeping in the quiet gloom, | |
| And holiness about you as you slept. | |
| I knelt there; till your waking fingers crept | 5 |
| About my head, and held it. I had rest | |
| Unhoped this side of Heaven, beneath your breast. | |
| I knelt a long time, still; nor even wept. | |
| |
| It was great wrong you did me; and for gain | |
| Of that poor moment’s kindliness, and ease, | 10 |
| And sleepy mother-comfort! | |
| Child, you know | |
| How easily love leaps out to dreams like these, | |
| Who has seen them true. And love that’s wakened so | |
Takes all too long to lay asleep again.
WAIKIKI, October 1913. | 15 |
|
|
