Rupert Chawner Brooke

It's Not Going to Happen Again

   I have known the most dear that is granted us here,
    More supreme than the gods know above,
   Like a star I was hurled through the sweet of the world,
    And the height and the light of it, Love.
   I have risen to the uttermost Heaven of Joy,
    I have sunk to the sheer Hell of Pain--
   But--it's not going to happen again, my boy,
    It's not going to happen again.

   It's the very first word that poor Juliet heard
    From her Romeo over the Styx;
   And the Roman will tell Cleopatra in hell
    When she starts her immortal old tricks;
   What Paris was tellin' for good-bye to Helen
    When he bundled her into the train--
   Oh, it's not going to happen again, old girl,
    It's not going to happen again.