Chapter 16
Wai Kiki by Rupert Brooke Read for LibriVox by Peter Yersley Warm perfumes, like a breath from vine and tree, Drift down the darkness, plangent, hidden from eyes. Somewhere an ukulele thrills and cries,
And stabs with pain the night's brown savagery, And dark scents whisper, and dim waves creep to me, Gleam like a woman's hair, stretch out and rise, And new stars burn into the ancient skies Over the murmurous, soft Hawaiian sea.
And I recall, lose, grasp, forget again, And still remember a tale I have heard or known, An empty tale of idleness and pain, Of two that loved or did not love, And one whose perplexed heart did evil foolishly
A long while since, and by some other sea. Wai Kiki 1913 End of poem This recording is in the public domain.
