Love

Success

by Rupert Brooke 1887–1915

From The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke (1915)

LoveRelationships

I think if you had loved me when I wanted;
If I'd looked up one day, and seen your eyes,
And found my wild sick blasphemous prayer granted,
And your brown face, that's full of pity and wise,
Flushed suddenly; the white godhead in new fear
Intolerably so struggling, and so shamed;
Most holy and far, if you'd come all too near,
If earth had seen Earth's lordliest wild limbs tamed,
Shaken, and trapped, and shivering, for MY touch --
Myself should I have slain? or that foul you?
But this the strange gods, who had given so much,
To have seen and known you, this they might not do.
One last shame's spared me, one black word's unspoken;
And I'm alone; and you have not awoken.

✦ ✦ ✦

A sonnet of unrequited love: if only the beloved had loved him when he wanted it. It ends 'And I'm alone; and you have not awoken.'

MLA

Brooke, Rupert. “Success.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/brooke/29/.

Chicago

Brooke, Rupert. “Success.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/brooke/29/.

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