The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke

The Goddess in the Wood

   In a flowered dell the Lady Venus stood,
    Amazed with sorrow.  Down the morning one
    Far golden horn in the gold of trees and sun
   Rang out; and held; and died. . . .  She thought the wood
   Grew quieter.  Wing, and leaf, and pool of light
    Forgot to dance.  Dumb lay the unfalling stream;
    Life one eternal instant rose in dream
   Clear out of time, poised on a golden height. . . .

   Till a swift terror broke the abrupt hour.
   The gold waves purled amidst the green above her;
    And a bird sang.  With one sharp-taken breath,
   By sunlit branches and unshaken flower,
   The immortal limbs flashed to the human lover,
    And the immortal eyes to look on death.