Memories
A former WAAF Wireless Operator

So we watched the springtime pass,
And summer gild the meadows deep
In buttercups as calm-eyed cattle
Wandered knee-deep in the grass;
And we watched the hot days sleep
In lazy mists among the hills,
And listened nightly to the roar
Of bombers riding out the light
And life seemed boring
When we spent the night
Pouring over the sqeaking set,
To watch the morning come at last,
And know that all were safely home
When the long hours had passed.

For Those We've Lost
Mine

Like an ice-breaker through the Poles,
Ever searching for lost souls,
We strive to keep death near,
Frozen in time, yet clear, but
Painful memories mulled, and
Senses slowly dulled,
Time will heal the pain,
Till the ship sets sail again.

Dining-Room Tea
Rupert Brooke

When you were there, and you, and you,
Happiness crowned the night; I too,
Laughing and looking, one of all,
I watched the quivering lamplight fall
On plate and flowers and pouring tea
And cup and cloth; and they and we
Flung all the dancing moments by
With jest and glitter. Lip and eye
Flashed on the glory, shone and cried,
Improvident, unmemoried;
And fitfully and like a flame
The light of laughter went and came.
Proud in their careless transience moved
The changing faces that I loved.

Till suddenly, and otherwhence,
I looked upon your innocence.
For lifted clear and still and strange
From the dark woven flow of change
Under a vast and starless sky
I saw the immortal moment lie.
One instant I, an instant, knew
As God knows all. And it and you
I, above Time, oh, blind! could see
In witless immortality.
I saw the marble cup; the tea,
Hung on the air, an amber stream;
I saw the fire's unglittering gleam,
The painted flame, the frozen smoke.
No more the flooding lamplight broke
On flying eyes and lips and hair;
But lay, but slept unbroken there,
On stiller flesh, and body breathless,
And lips and laughter stayed and deathless,
And words on which no silence grew.Light was more alive than you.

For suddenly, and otherwhence,
I looked on your magnificence.
I saw the stillness and the light,
And you, august, immortal, white,
Holy and strange; and every glint
Posture and jest and thought and tint
Freed from the mask of transiency,
Triumphant in eternity,
Immote, immortal.                                  

Dazed at length
Human eyes grew, mortal strength
Wearied; and Time began to creep.
Change closed about me like a sleep.
Light glinted on the eyes I loved.
The cup was filled. The bodies moved.
The drifting petal came to ground.
The laughter chimed its perfect round.
The broken syllable was ended.And I, so certain and so friended,
How could I cloud, or how distress,
The heaven of your unconsciousness?
Or shake at Time's sufficient spell,
Stammering of lights unutterable?
The eternal holiness of you,
The timeless end, you never knew,
The peace that lay, the light that shone.
You never knew that I had gone
A million miles away, and stayed
A million years. The laughter played
Unbroken round me; and the jest
Flashed on. And we that knew the best
Down wonderful hours grew happier yet.
I sang at heart, and talked, and eat,
And lived from laugh to laugh, I too,
When you were there, and you, and you.

Absence, hear thou my protestation
John Hoskins

Absence, hear thou my protestation
Against thy strength,
Distance and length:
Do what thou canst for alteration;
For hearts of truest mettle
Absence doth join, and time doth settle.

Who loves a mistress of such quality,
He soon hath found
Affection's ground
Beyond time, place, and all mortality.
To hearts that cannot vary
Absence is present, time doth tarry.

My senses want their outward motions,
Which now within
Reason doth win
Redoubl'd in her secret notions;
Like rich men that take pleasure
In hiding, more than handling, treasure.

By absence this good means I gain,
That I can catch her
Where none can watch her,
In some close corner of my brain.
There I embrace and kiss her,
And so I both enjoy and miss her.      

 

May

Christina Rossetti

 

I cannot tell you how it was;

But this I know: it came to pass

Upon a bright and breezy day

When May was young; ah, pleasant May!

As yet the poppies were not born

Between the blades of tender corn;

The last eggs had not hatched as yet,

Nor any bird forgone its mate.

I cannot tell you what it was;

But this I know: it did but pass.

It passed away with sunny May,

With all sweet things it passed away,

And left me old, and cold, and grey.

I sigh'd and own'd my love:
Anon

I sigh'd and own'd my love:
Nor did the Fair my passion disapprove.
A soft engaging Air,
Not often apt to cause Despair,
Declar'd she gave attention to my Pray'r.
She seem'd to pity my Distress,
And I expected nothing less
Than what her every look did then confess.

But oh, her change destroys
The charming prospect of my promis'd Joys:
She's robb'd of every Grace
That argu'd Pity in her face,
And cold forbidding Frowns supply their place.
But, while she strives to chill Desire,
Her brighter Eyes such warmth inspire,
She checks the Flame, but cannot quench the Fire.