We sat entwined an hour or two together
We sat entwined an hour or two together
Original Text
The Verse of Christopher Brennan, ed. A. R. Chisholm and J. J. Quinn (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1960): 66, 254. PR 6003 R352A17 Robarts Library
1We sat entwined an hour or two together
2(how long I know not) underneath pine-trees
3that rustled ever in the soft spring weather
4stirr'd by the sole suggestion of the breeze:
5we sat and dreamt that strange hour out together
6fill'd with the sundering silence of the seas:
7the trees moan'd for us in the tender weather
8we found no word to speak beneath those trees
9but listen'd wondering to their dreamy dirges
10sunder'd even then in voiceless misery;
11heard in their boughs the murmur of the surges
12saw the far sky as curv'd above the sea.
13That noon seem'd some forgotten afternoon,
14cast out from Life, where Time might scarcely be:
15our old love was but remember'd as some swoon;
16Sweet, I scarce thought of you nor you of me
17but, lost in the vast, we watched the minutes hasting
18into the deep that sunders friend from friend;
19spake not nor stirr'd but heard the murmurs wasting
20into the silent distance without end:
21so, whelm'd in that silence, seem'd to us as one
22our hearts and all their desolate reverie,
23the irresistible melancholy of the sun
24the irresistible sadness of the sea.
Publication Start Year
1914
Publication Notes
Poems 1913 (1914). See Australian Poets eTexts Project, The Sydney Electronic Text and Image Service (SETIS)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire; Cameron La Follette
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form