Selected Poems. Brooke Rupert

      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!

      She was wrinkled and huge and hideous?

      She was our Mother.

      She was lustful and lewd? – but a God; we had none other.

      In the day She was hidden and dumb, but at nightfall moaned in the shade;

      We shuddered and gave Her Her will in the darkness; we were afraid.

      She sent us pain,

      And we bowed before Her;

      She smiled again

      And bade us adore Her.

      She solaced our woe

      And soothed our sighing;

      And what shall we do

      Now God is dying?

      She was hungry and ate our children; – how should we stay Her?

      She took our young men and our maidens; – ours to obey Her.

      We were loathed and mocked and reviled of all nations; that was our pride.

      She fed us, protected us, loved us, and killed us; now She has died.

      She was so strong;

      But Death is stronger.

      She ruled us long;

      But Time is longer.

      She solaced our woe

      And soothed our sighing;

      And what shall we do

      Now God is dying?

      Here in the dark, O heart;

      Alone with the enduring Earth, and Night,

      And Silence, and the warm strange smell of clover;

      Clear-visioned, though it break you; far apart

      From the dead best, the dear and old delight;

      Throw down your dreams of immortality,

      O faithful, O foolish lover!

      Here's peace for you, and surety; here the one

      Wisdom – the truth! – "All day the good glad sun

      Showers love and labour on you, wine and song;

      The greenwood laughs, the wind blows, all day long

      Till night." And night ends all things.

      Then shall be

      No lamp relumed in heaven, no voices crying,

      Or changing lights, or dreams and forms that hover!

      (And, heart, for all your sighing,

      That gladness and those tears are over, over…)

      And has the truth brought no new hope at all,

      Heart, that you're weeping yet for Paradise?

      Do they still whisper, the old weary cries?

      "'Mid youth and song, feasting and carnival,

      Through laughter, through the roses, as of old

      Comes Death, on shadowy and relentless feet,

      Death, unappeasable by prayer or gold;

      Death is the end, the end!"

      Proud, then, clear-eyed and laughing, go to greet

      Death as a friend!

      Exile of immortality, strongly wise,

      Strain through the dark with undesirous eyes

      To what may lie beyond it. Sets your star,

      O heart, for ever! Yet, behind the night,

      Waits for the great unborn, somewhere afar,

      Some white tremendous daybreak. And the light,

      Returning, shall give back the golden hours,

      Ocean a windless level, Earth a lawn

      Spacious and full of sunlit dancing-places,

      And laughter, and music, and, among the flowers,

      The gay child-hearts of men, and the child-faces

      O heart, in the great dawn!

      Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,

      Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.

      You said, "Through glory and ecstasy we pass;

      Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still,

      When we are old, are old…" "And when we die

      All's over that is ours; and life burns on

      Through other lovers, other lips," said I,

      – "Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!"

      "We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here.

      Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!" we said;

      "We shall go down with unreluctant tread

      Rose-crowned