Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke was an established writer before signing up to fight in WW1.  Perhaps his best known poem is this one:

The Old Vicarage, Grantchester
(Cafe des Westens, Berlin, May 1912)

Just now the lilac is in bloom,
All before my little room;
And in my flower-beds, I think,
Smile the carnation and the pink;
And down the borders, well I know,
The poppy and the pansy blow . . .
Oh! there the chestnuts, summer through,
Beside the river make for you
A tunnel of green gloom, and sleep
Deeply above; and green and deep
The stream mysterious glides beneath,
Green as a dream and deep as death.
— Oh, damn! I know it! and I know
How the May fields all golden show,
And when the day is young and sweet,
Gild gloriously the bare feet
That run to bathe . . .


The last couple of lines are memorable:


... yet

Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?

I visited Grantchester one time with my friend, Brian.  There is a new clock on the church, and the current owner of the Old Rectory is author, Jeffrey Archer.


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