Poem A Day

Sonnet Reversed

by Rupert Brooke

Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights

Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.

Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!

Soon they returned, and, after strange adventures,

Settled at Balham by the end of June.

Their money was in Can. Pacs. B. Debentures,

And in Antofagastas. Still he went

Cityward daily; still she did abide

At home. And both were really quite content

With work and social pleasures. Then they died.

They left three children (besides George, who drank):

The eldest Jane, who married Mr Bell,

William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,

And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.

About this poem

The title signals a sonnet that begins at an emotional height and then moves toward ordinary domestic aftermath.

What to notice

  • The opening line gives the poem its high romantic pitch before the reversal begins.
  • The reversal is structural as well as emotional: the poem moves backward from climax toward the smaller realities that follow it.

Text and source

Rights
Public domain
Source
View original source

The source line comes from the reviewed PoetryDB public-domain import path for Rupert Brooke.

Poem A Day

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