| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| I. 1905–1908 |
| 8. Seaside |
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| SWIFTLY out from the friendly lilt of the band, | |
| The crowd’s good laughter, the loved eyes of men, | |
| I am drawn nightward; I must turn again | |
| Where, down beyond the low untrodden strand, | |
| There curves and glimmers outward to the unknown | 5 |
| The old unquiet ocean. All the shade | |
| Is rife with magic and movement. I stray alone | |
| Here on the edge of silence, half afraid, | |
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| Waiting a sign. In the deep heart of me | |
| The sullen waters swell towards the moon, | 10 |
| And all my tides set seaward. | |
| From inland | |
| Leaps a gay fragment of some mocking tune, | |
| That tinkles and laughs and fades along the sand, | |
| And dies between the seawall and the sea. | 15 |
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