| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| I. 1905–1908 |
| 3. Sleeping Out: Full Moon |
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| THEY sleep within.… | |
| I cower to the earth, I waking, I only. | |
| High and cold thou dreamest, O queen, high-dreaming and lonely. | |
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| We have slept too long, who can hardly win | |
| The white one flame, and the night-long crying; | 5 |
| The viewless passers; the world’s low sighing | |
| With desire, with yearning, | |
| To the fire unburning, | |
| To the heatless fire, to the flameless ecstasy!.… | |
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| Helpless I lie. | 10 |
| And around me the feet of thy watchers tread. | |
| There is a rumour and a radiance of wings above my head, | |
| An intolerable radiance of wings.… | |
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| All the earth grows fire, | |
| White lips of desire | 15 |
| Brushing cool on the forehead, croon slumbrous things. | |
| Earth fades; and the air is thrilled with ways, | |
| Dewy paths full of comfort. And radiant bands, | |
| The gracious presence of friendly hands, | |
| Help the blind one, the glad one, who stumbles and strays, | 20 |
| Stretching wavering hands, up, up, through the praise | |
| Of a myriad silver trumpets, through cries, | |
| To all glory, to all gladness, to the infinite height, | |
| To the gracious, the unmoving, the mother eyes, | |
| And the laughter, and the lips, of light. | 25 |
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