Poem by Rupert Chawner Brooke

The Busy Heart

 Now that we've done our best and worst, and parted,
   I would fill my mind with thoughts that will not rend.
 (O heart, I do not dare go empty-hearted)
   I'll think of Love in books, Love without end;
 Women with child, content; and old men sleeping;
   And wet strong ploughlands, scarred for certain grain;
 And babes that weep, and so forget their weeping;
   And the young heavens, forgetful after rain;
 And evening hush, broken by homing wings;
   And Song's nobility, and Wisdom holy,
 That live, we dead. I would think of a thousand things,
   Lovely and durable, and taste them slowly,
 One after one, like tasting a sweet food.
 I have need to busy my heart with quietude.

1. The Great Lover
2. Doubts
3. Second Best
4. Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening
5. Desertion

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