Peace Sonnets Not War Poems

 

 

Photographers’ Sonnet

Rupert Brooke 

Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye,  and sharpened power,

To turn,  as swimmers into cleanness leaping.

We have found safety with all things undying,

The winds, and morning, tears of men, and mirth,

The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,

And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth:

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds, dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

 

 

Reassembled  by K.Hyam from Rupert Brooke’s sonnets Peace 1914, Safety 1914 and The Soldier 1914.