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Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening

By Rupert Brooke

Topics: classic

I'd watched the sorrow of the evening sky,     And smelt the sea, and earth, and the warm clover,     And heard the waves, and the seagull's mocking cry.     And in them all was only the old cry,     That song they always sing, "The best is over!     You may remember now, and think, and sigh,     O silly lover!"     And I was tired and sick that all was over,     And because I,     For all my thinking, never could recover     One moment of the good hours that were over.     And I was sorry and sick, and wished to die.     Then from the sad west turning wearily,     I saw the pines against the white north sky,     Very beautiful, and still, and bending over     Their sharp black heads against a quiet sky.     And there was peace in them; and I     Was happy, and forgot to play the lover,     And laughed, and did no longer wish to die;     Being glad of you, O pine-trees and the sky!

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Author:Rupert Brooke

"I'd watched the sorrow of the evening sky,..." by Rupert Brooke

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Rupert Brooke

About Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) was an English war poet whose sonnets—including "The Soldier" ("If I should die, think only this of me")—idealized the sacrifice of war. He died of sepsis en route to Gallipoli and became a symbol of the lost generation of WWI.

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