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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Unfortunate

Rupert Brooke

Heart, you are restless as a paper scrap
 That’s tossed down dusty pavements by the wind;
 Saying, “She is most wise, patient and kind.
Between the small hands folded in her lap
Surely a shamed head may bow down at length,
 And find forgiveness where the shadows stir
About her lips, and wisdom in her strength,
 Peace in her peace.  Come to her, come to her!” . . .

She will not care.  She’ll smile to see me come,
 So that I think all Heaven in flower to fold me.
 She’ll give me all I ask, kiss me and hold me,
    And open wide upon that holy air
The gates of peace, and take my tiredness home,
    Kinder than God.  But, heart, she will not care.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Rupert Brooke’s Collected Poems | 1915
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