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Home  »  Collected Poems  »  1. Sonnet: Oh! Death Will Find Me, Long Before I Tire

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916.

II. 1908–1911

1. Sonnet: Oh! Death Will Find Me, Long Before I Tire

OH! Death will find me, long before I tire

Of watching you; and swing me suddenly

Into the shade and loneliness and mire

Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,

One day, I think, I’ll feel a cool wind blowing,

See a slow light across the Stygian tide,

And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,

And tremble. And Ishall know that you have died,

And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,

Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,

Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam—

Most individual and bewildering ghost!—

And turn, and toss your brown delightful head

Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.