Poem by Rupert Chawner Brooke

The Call

   Out of the nothingness of sleep,
    The slow dreams of Eternity,
   There was a thunder on the deep:
    I came, because you called to me.

   I broke the Night's primeval bars,
    I dared the old abysmal curse,
   And flashed through ranks of frightened stars
    Suddenly on the universe!

   The eternal silences were broken;
    Hell became Heaven as I passed. --
   What shall I give you as a token,
    A sign that we have met, at last?

   I'll break and forge the stars anew,
    Shatter the heavens with a song;
   Immortal in my love for you,
    Because I love you, very strong.

   Your mouth shall mock the old and wise,
    Your laugh shall fill the world with flame,
   I'll write upon the shrinking skies
    The scarlet splendour of your name,

   Till Heaven cracks, and Hell thereunder
    Dies in her ultimate mad fire,
   And darkness falls, with scornful thunder,
    On dreams of men and men's desire.

   Then only in the empty spaces,
    Death, walking very silently,
   Shall fear the glory of our faces
    Through all the dark infinity.

   So, clothed about with perfect love,
    The eternal end shall find us one,
   Alone above the Night, above
    The dust of the dead gods, alone.

1. The Great Lover
2. The One Before the Last
3. Song (All suddenly the wind comes soft)
4. Song (The way of love was thus)
5. Fragment on Painters

Edgar Guest The Call ("Joy stands on the hilltops")

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