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Oh! Death Will Find Me, Long Before I Tire

By Rupert Brooke

Topics: classic

Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire     Of watching you; and swing me suddenly     Into the shade and loneliness and mire     Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,          One day, I think, I'll feel a cool wind blowing,     See a slow light across the Stygian tide,     And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,     And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,          And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,     Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,     Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam,     Most individual and bewildering ghost!          And turn, and toss your brown delightful head     Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.

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Author:Rupert Brooke

"Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire..." by Rupert Brooke

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Rupert Brooke

About Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) was an English war poet whose sonnets—including "The Soldier" ("If I should die, think only this of me")—idealized the sacrifice of war. He died of sepsis en route to Gallipoli and became a symbol of the lost generation of WWI.

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