William Ernest Henley

"What have I done for you,     England, my England?     What is there I would not do,     England, my own?     With your glorious eyes austere,"

"(Ob. October 30, 1897)     He looked half-parson and half-skipper: a quaint,     Beautiful blend, with blue eyes good to see,     And old-world wh"

"Out of the night that covers me,     Black as the Pit from pole to pole,     I thank whatever gods may be     For my unconquerable soul."

"Blue-eyed and bright of face but waning fast     Into the sere of virginal decay,     I view her as she enters, day by day,     As a sweet suns"

"So went our boys when EDWARD SIXTH, the King,     Chartered CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, and died.    And so     Full fifteen generations in a string"

"I gave my heart to a woman -     I gave it her, branch and root.     She bruised, she wrung, she tortured,     She cast it under foot.     Un"

"The ways of Death are soothing and serene,     And all the words of Death are grave and sweet.     From camp and church, the fireside and the st"

"When you are old, and I am passed away     Passed, and your face, your golden face, is gray     I think, whate'er the end, this dream of mine,"

"The morning mists still haunt the stony street;     The northern summer air is shrill and cold;     And lo, the Hospital, grey, quiet, old,"

"The skies are strown with stars,     The streets are fresh with dew     A thin moon drifts to westward,     The night is hushed and cheerful."

"Bring her again, O western wind,     Over the western sea:     Gentle and good and fair and kind,     Bring her again to me!     Not that her"

"Something is dead . . .     The grace of sunset solitudes, the march     Of the solitary moon, the pomp and power     Of round on round of shin"

"(To A. C.)     What should the Trees,     Midsummer-manifold, each one,     Voluminous, a labyrinth of life,     What should such things o"

"'Talk of pluck!' pursued the Sailor,     Set at euchre on his elbow,     'I was on the wharf at Charleston,     Just ashore from off the runner"

"Time and the Earth,     The old Father and Mother,     Their teeming accomplished,     Their purpose fulfilled,     Close with a smile     Fo"

"Thick is the darkness -     Sunward, O, sunward!     Rough is the highway -     Onward, still onward!     Dawn harbours surely     East of t"

"It came with the threat of a waning moon     And the wail of an ebbing tide,     But many a woman has lived for less,     And many a man has di"

"A late lark twitters from the quiet skies;     And from the west,     Where the sun, his day's work ended,     Lingers as in content,     Ther"

"You played and sang a snatch of song,     A song that all-too well we knew;     But whither had flown the ancient wrong;     And was it really"

"Or ever the knightly years were gone     With the old world to the grave,     I was a King in Babylon     And you were a Christian Slave."

"Let us be drunk, and for a while forget,     Forget, and, ceasing even from regret,     Live without reason and despite of rhyme,     As in a d"

"By W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson, Avenue Theatre, Monday, November 29, 1897.     Spoken by Miss ELIZABETH ROBINS.     Once was an Age, an A"

"Love blows as the wind blows,     Love blows into the heart.     - Nile Boat-Song     Life in her creaking shoes     Goes, and more formal g"

"The big teetotum twirls, And epochs wax and wane As chance subsides or swirls; But of the loss and gain The sum is always plain. Read on the mighty pa"

"The rain and the wind, the wind and the rain -- They are with us like a disease: They worry the heart, they work the brain, As they shoulder and clutc"

"Madam Life's a piece in bloom Death goes dogging everywhere: She's the tenant of the room, He's the ruffian on the stair. You shall see her as a frie"

"Between the dusk of a summer night And the dawn of a summer day, We caught at a mood as it passed in flight, And we bade it stoop and stay. And what w"

"Where are the passions they essayed, And where the tears they made to flow? Where the wild humours they portrayed For laughing worlds to see and know?"

"Why, my heart, do we love her so?     (Geraldine, Geraldine!)     Why does the great sea ebb and flow? -     Why does the round world spin?"

"The day's high work is over and done,     And these no more will need the sun:     Blow, you bugles of ENGLAND, blow!     These are gone whithe"

"The Sword     Singing -     The voice of the Sword from the heart of the Sword     Clanging imperious     Forth from Time's battlements     H"

"Trees and the menace of night;     Then a long, lonely, leaden mere     Backed by a desolate fell     As by a spectral battlement; and then,"

"Fountains that frisk and sprinkle     The moss they overspill;     Pools that the breezes crinkle;     The wheel beside the mill,     With its"

"Friends . . . old friends . . .     One sees how it ends.     A woman looks     Or a man tells lies,     And the pleasant brooks     And the"

"A child,     Curious and innocent,     Slips from his Nurse, and rejoicing     Loses himself in the Fair.     Thro' the jostle and din     W"

"It's the Spring.     Earth has conceived, and her bosom,     Teeming with summer, is glad.     Vistas of change and adventure,     Thro' the"

"He's called The General from the brazen craft     And dash with which he sneaks a bit of road     And all its fares; challenged, or chafed, or c"

"In the waste hour     Between to-day and yesterday     We watched, while on my arm -     Living flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone -     Dab"

"Spring winds that blow     As over leagues of myrtle-blooms and may;     Bevies of spring clouds trooping slow,     Like matrons heavy bosomed"

"The shadow of Dawn;     Stillness and stars and over-mastering dreams     Of Life and Death and Sleep;     Heard over gleaming flats the old"

"She's tall and gaunt, and in her hard, sad face     With flashes of the old fun's animation     There lowers the fixed and peevish resignation"

"Why, my heart, do we love her so?      (Geraldine, Geraldine!)     Why does the great sea ebb and flow?      Why does the round world spin?"

"Was I a Samurai renowned,     Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?     A histrion angular and profound?     A priest? a porter? - Child, althou"

"If it should come to be,     This proof of you and me,     This type and sign     Of hours that smiled and shone,     And yet seemed dead and"

"On ne saurait dire e quel point un homme,     seul dans son lit et malade, devient personnel. -     BALZAC I - ENTER PATIENT     The mor"

"Though, if you ask her name, she says ELISE,     Being plain ELIZABETH, e'en let it pass,     And own that, if her aspirates take their ease,"

"Staring corpselike at the ceiling,     See his harsh, unrazored features,     Ghastly brown against the pillow,     And his throat - so strange"

"The surges gushed and sounded,     The blue was the blue of June,     And low above the brightening east     Floated a shred of moon.     The"

"Fools may pine, and sots may swill,     Cynics gibe, and prophets rail,     Moralists may scourge and drill,     Preachers prose, and fainthear"

"These to the glory and praise of the green land     That bred my women, and that holds my dead,     ENGLAND, and with her the strong broods that"

"She's an enchanting little Israelite,     A world of hidden dimples! - Dusky-eyed,     A starry-glancing daughter of the Bride,     With hair e"

"'As like the Woman as you can' -     (Thus the New Adam was beguiled) -     'So shall you touch the Perfect Man' -     (God in the Garden heard"

"Take any station, pavement, circus, corner,     Where men their styles of print may call or choose,     And there - ten times more on it than JA"

"We flash across the level.     We thunder thro' the bridges.     We bicker down the cuttings.     We sway along the ridges.     A rush of str"

"Laughs the happy April morn     Thro' my grimy, little window,     And a shaft of sunshine pushes     Thro' the shadows in the square.     Do"

"To J. A. C.     Fresh from his fastnesses     Wholesome and spacious,     The North Wind, the mad huntsman,     Halloas on his white hounds"

"Out of the night that covers me,         Black as the pit from pole to pole,     I thank whatever gods may be         for my unconquerable soul"

"Take, dear, my little sheaf of songs,     For, old or new,     All that is good in them belongs     Only to you;     And, singing as when all"

"The shadow of Dawn;     Stillness and stars and over-mastering dreams     Of Life and Death and Sleep;     Heard over gleaming flats, the old,"

"With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams     The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise,     And the winds are one with the clouds and be"