Time & Brevity

The Treasure

by Rupert Brooke 1887–1915

From 1914 and Other Poems (1915)

Time & BrevityThe Mind

When colour goes home into the eyes,
And lights that shine are shut again
With dancing girls and sweet birds' cries
Behind the gateways of the brain;
And that no-place which gave them birth, shall close
The rainbow and the rose: --

Still may Time hold some golden space
Where I'll unpack that scented store
Of song and flower and sky and face,
And count, and touch, and turn them o'er,
Musing upon them; as a mother, who
Has watched her children all the rich day through
Sits, quiet-handed, in the fading light,
When children sleep, ere night.

✦ ✦ ✦

When the senses close, the speaker hopes to keep 'a golden space' in which to unpack the store of song, flower, sky and face. The closing simile is of a mother sitting quiet-handed after her children are asleep.

MLA

Brooke, Rupert. “The Treasure.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/brooke/5/.

Chicago

Brooke, Rupert. “The Treasure.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/brooke/5/.

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