RPO -- Rupert Brooke : Sonnet Reversed

Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

Sonnet Reversed

1Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights

2Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.

3Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!

4Soon they returned, and, after strange adventures,

5Settled at Balham by the end of June.

6Their money was in Can. Pacs. B. Debentures,

7And in Antofagastas. Still he went

8Cityward daily; still she did abide

9At home. And both were really quite content

10With work and social pleasures. Then they died.

11They left three children (besides George, who drank):

12The eldest Jane, who married Mr Bell,

13William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,

14And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.

Notes

5] Balham: district in Wandsworth, Greater London.

6] Can. Pacs. B. Debentures: Canadian Pacific Railway Debentures (with thanks to Michael Watson).

7] Antofagastas: Antofagasta is a city in Chile. Brooke's plural likely refers to stocks in the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Company (with thanks to Michael Watson).

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke: With a Memoir (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1919): 158. PR 6003 R4 1919 Robarts Library.
First publication date: 1919
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 2:2001/11/15*1:2009/4/20

Composition date: 1 January 1911
Composition date note: Composed at Lulworth
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: aa bcbccdcdefef

Other poems by Rupert Brooke