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In Hospital - VI - After

By William Ernest Henley

Topics: classic

Like as a flamelet blanketed in smoke,     So through the anaesthetic shows my life;     So flashes and so fades my thought, at strife     With the strong stupor that I heave and choke     And sicken at, it is so foully sweet.     Faces look strange from space - and disappear.     Far voices, sudden loud, offend my ear -     And hush as sudden.    Then my senses fleet:     All were a blank, save for this dull, new pain     That grinds my leg and foot; and brokenly     Time and the place glimpse on to me again;     And, unsurprised, out of uncertainty,     I wake - relapsing - somewhat faint and fain,     To an immense, complacent dreamery.

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"Like as a flamelet blanketed in smoke,..."

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Author:William Ernest Henley

"Like as a flamelet blanketed in smoke,..." by William Ernest Henley

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William Ernest Henley

About William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) was an English poet, critic, and editor best known for his poem "Invictus" ("I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul"). Written while recovering from tuberculosis of the bone, it has become one of the most quoted poems of courage and resilience.

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