| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| V. The South Seas |
| 14. Mutability |
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| THEY say there’s a high windless world and strange, | |
| Out of the wash of days and temporal tide, | |
| Where Faith and Good, Wisdom and Truth abide, | |
| Æterna corpora, subject to no change. | |
| There the sure suns of these pale shadows move; | 5 |
| There stand the immortal ensigns of our war; | |
| Our melting flesh fixed Beauty there, a star, | |
| And perishing hearts, imperishable Love.… | |
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| Dear, we know only that we sigh, kiss, smile; | |
| Each kiss lasts but the kissing; and grief goes over; | 10 |
| Love has no habitation but the heart. | |
| Poor straws! on the dark flood we catch awhile, | |
| Cling, and are borne into the night apart. | |
The laugh dies with the lips, ‘Love’ with the lover.
SOUTH KENSINGTON—MAKAWELI, 1913. | |
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