Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke — A Channel Passage

Till a swift terror broke the abrupt hour.

The gold waves purled amidst the green above her;

And a bird sang.

With one sharp-taken breath, By sunlit branches and unshaken flower, The immortal limbs flashed to the human lover, And the immortal eyes to look on death.

A Channel Passage The damned ship lurched and slithered.

Quiet and quick My cold gorge rose; the long sea rolled; I knew I must think hard of something, or be sick;

And could think hard of only one thing -- YOU!

You, you alone could hold my fancy ever!

And with you memories come, sharp pain, and dole.

Now there's a choice -- heartache or tortured liver!

A sea-sick body, or a you-sick soul!

Do I forget you?

Retchings twist and tie me, Old meat, good meals, brown gobbets, up I throw.

Do I remember?

Acrid return and slimy, The sobs and slobber of a last years woe.

And still the sick ship rolls.

'Tis hard, I tell ye, To choose 'twixt love and nausea, heart and belly.