Poems [Paperback]

William Ernest Henley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2002

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n WAITING A SQUARE, squat room (a cellar on promotion), Drab to the soul, drab to the very daylight; Plasters astray in unnatural-looking tinware; Scissors and lint and apothecary's jars. Here, on a bench a skeleton would writhe from, Angry and sore, I wait to be admitted: Wait till my heart is lead upon my stomach, j v" While at their ease two dressers do their chores. One has a probe—it feels to me a crowbar. A small boy sniffs and shudders after bluestone. A poor old tramp explains his poor old ulcers. Life is (I think) a blunder and a shame. chapter{Section 4in INTERIOR The gaunt brown walls Look infinite in their decent meanness. There is nothing of home in the noisy kettle, The fulsome fire. The atmosphere Suggests the trail of a ghostly druggist. Dressings and lint on the long, lean table— Whom are they for? The patients yawn, Or lie as in training for shroud and coffin. A nurse in the corridor scolds and wrangles. It's grim and strange. Far footfalls clank. The bad burn waits with his head unbandaged. My neighbour chokes in the clutch of chloral. . . O, a gruesome world! chapter{Section 5IV BEFORE Behold me waiting—waiting for the knife. A little while, and at a leap I storm The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform, The drunken dark, the little death-in-life. The gods are good to me: I have no wife, No innocent child, to think of as I near The fateful minute; nothing ail-too dear Unmans me for my bout of passive strife. Yet I am tremulous and a trifle sick, And, face to face with chance, I shrink a little: My hopes are strong, my will is something weak. Here comes the basket? Thank you. I am ready. But, gentlemen my porters, life is brittle: You carry Caesar and his fortunes—steady! chapter{Section 6V OPERATION...

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 146 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (July 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404325115
• ISBN-13: 978-1404325111
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,862,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)