Interior

William Ernest HenleyWilliam Ernest Henley

1 min read · 12.4K reads

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!
William Ernest Henley
About the poet

William Ernest Henley

1849 - 1903/Male/EnglishA poet, critic and editor best known for his poem Invictus. (wikipedia)

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