| Rupert Brooke (1887–1915). Collected Poems. 1916. |
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| V. The South Seas |
| 5. Doubts |
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| WHEN she sleeps, her soul, I know, | |
| Goes a wanderer on the air, | |
| Wings where I may never go, | |
| Leaves her lying, still and fair, | |
| Waiting, empty, laid aside, | 5 |
| Like a dress upon a chair.… | |
| This I know, and yet I know | |
| Doubts that will not be denied. | |
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| For if the soul be not in place, | |
| What has laid trouble in her face? | 10 |
| And, sits there nothing ware and wise | |
| Behind the curtains of her eyes, | |
| What is it, in the self’s eclipse, | |
| Shadows, soft and passingly, | |
| About the corners of her lips, | 15 |
| The smile that is essential she? | |
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| And if the spirit be not there, | |
| Why is fragrance in the hair? | |
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