---

Rupert Brooke - Day That I Have Loved
Work rating: Low

Tenderly, day that I have loved, I close your eyes,
 And smooth your quiet brow, and fold your thin dead hands.
The grey veils of the half-light deepen; colour dies.
 I bear you, a light burden, to the shrouded sands,

Where lies your waiting boat, by wreaths of the sea`s making
 Mist-garlanded, with all grey weeds of the water crowned.
There you`ll be laid, past fear of sleep or hope of waking;
 And over the unmoving sea, without a sound,

Faint hands will row you outward, out beyond our sight,
 Us with stretched arms and empty eyes on the far-gleaming
And marble sand. . . .
                        Beyond the shifting cold twilight,
 Further than laughter goes, or tears, further than dreaming,
There`ll be no port, no dawn-lit islands!  But the drear
 Waste darkening, and, at length, flame ultimate on the deep.
Oh, the last fire — and you, unkissed, unfriended there!
 Oh, the lone way`s red ending, and we not there to weep!

(We found you pale and quiet, and strangely crowned with flowers,
 Lovely and secret as a child.  You came with us,
Came happily, hand in hand with the young dancing hours,
 High on the downs at dawn!)  Void now and tenebrous,

The grey sands curve before me. . . .
                                       From the inland meadows,
 Fragrant of June and clover, floats the dark, and fills
The hollow sea`s dead face with little creeping shadows,
 And the white silence brims the hollow of the hills.

Close in the nest is folded every weary wing,
 Hushed all the joyful voices; and we, who held you dear,
Eastward we turn and homeward, alone, remembering . . .
 Day that I loved, day that I loved, the Night is here!
Source
The script ran 0.001 seconds.