Selected poems Author:Rupert Brooke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Kindliness WHEN love has changed to kindliness— Oh, love, our hungry lips, that press So tight that Time's an old god's dream Nodding in heaven, and whisper s... more »tuff Seven million years were not enough To think on after, make it seem Less than the breath of children playing, A blasphemy scarce worth the saying, A sorry jest, " When love has grown To kindliness—to kindliness ! " . . . And yet—the best that cither's known Will change, and wither, and be less, At last, than comfort, or its own Remembrance. And when some caress Tendered in habit (once a flame All heaven sang out to) wakes the shame Unworded, in the steady eyes We'll have,—that day, what shall we do ? Being so noble, kill the two Who've reached their second-best ? Being wise, Break cleanly off, and get away, Follow down other windier skies New lures, alone ? Or shall we stay, Since this is all we've known, content In the lean twilight of such day, And not remember, not lament f That time when all is over, and Hand never flinches, brushing hand ; And blood lies quiet, for all you're near ; And it's but spoken words we hear, Where trumpets sang ; when the mere skies Are stranger and nobler than your eyes ; And flesh is flesh, was flame before ; And infinite hungers leap no more In the chance swaying of your dress ; And love has changed to kindliness. The Voice SAFE in the magic of my woods I lay, and watched the dying light. Faint in the pale high solitudes, And washed with rain and veiled by night, Silver and blue and green were showing. And the dark woods grew darker still; And birds were hushed ; and peace was growing; And quietness crept up the hill; And no wind was blowing . . . And I knew That this was the hour of knowing, And the night and the woods and you Were one together, and I sh...« less