| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| II. 1908–1911 |
| 10. The Hill |
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| BREATHLESS, we flung us on the windy hill, | |
| Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. | |
| You said, “Through glory and ecstasy we pass; | |
| Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still, | |
| When we are old, are old.…” “And when we die | 5 |
| All’s over that is ours; and life burns on | |
| Through other lovers, other lips,” said I, | |
| —“Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!” | |
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| “We are Earth’s best, that learnt her lesson here. | |
| Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!” we said; | 10 |
| “We shall go down with unreluctant tread | |
| Rose-crowned into the darkness!”… Proud we were, | |
| And laughed, that had such brave true things to say. | |
| —And then you suddenly cried, and turned away. | |
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