William Ernest Henley

We flash across the level.
We thunder thro’ the bridges.
We bicker down the cuttings.
We sway along the ridges.A rush of streaming hedges,…

CARMEN PATIBULARE
To H. S.Tree, Old Tree of the Triple Crook
And the rope of the Black Election,
’Tis the faith of the Fool that a race you rule…

Над цепью скал в объятьях темноты
Круглится бок Артурова холма,
Закат румянит горные хребты,
Ступени улиц, ветхие дома.…

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 sunset almost overpast.…

WITH strawberries we filled a tray,
And then we drove away, away
Along the links beside the sea,
Where wave and wind were light and free,…

Beside the idle summer sea,
And in the vacant summer days,
Light Love came fluting down the ways,
Where you were loitering with me.

There's never a delicate nurseling of the year But our huge London hails it, and delights To wear it on her breast or at her ear,
Her days to colour and make sweet her nights.
Crocus and daffodil and violet,
Pink, primrose,…

The spring, my dear,
Is no longer spring.
Does the blackbird sing
What he sang last year?…

The sea is full of wandering foam,
The sky of driving cloud;
My restless thoughts among them roam . . .
The night is dark and loud.Where are the hours that came to me…

The surges gushed and sounded,
The blue was the blue of June,
And low above the brightening east
Floated a shred of moon.The woods were black and solemn,…

Army Reserve; a worshipper of Bobs,
With whom he stripped the smock from Candahar;
Neat as his mount, that neatest among cobs;
Whenever pageants pass, or meetings are,

Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably,
Neat-footed and weak-fingered: in his face -
Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race,
Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea,…

To James McNeill WhistlerUnder a stagnant sky,
Gloom out of gloom uncoiling into gloom,
The River, jaded and forlorn,
Welters and wanders wearily—wretchedly—on;…

To R. L. S.A child,
Curious and innocent,
Slips from his Nurse, and rejoicing
Loses himself in the Fair.Thro' the jostle and din…

His beat lies knee-high through a dust of story— A dust of terror and torture, grief and crime;
Ghosts that are England's wonder, and shame, and glory Throng where he walks, an antic of old time;
A sense of long immedicable tears Were…

There's a
So grinding, so immitigably sad,
Remorse thereby feels tolerant, even glad.…Do you not know it yet?
For deeds

If it should come to be,
This proof of you and me,
This type and sign
Of hours that smiled and shone,…

She’s an enchanting little Israelite,
A world of hidden dimples!—Dusky-eyed,
A starry-glancing daughter of the Bride,
With hair escaped from some Arabian Night,…

To H. B. M. W.Where forlorn sunsets flare and fade
On desolate sea and lonely sand,
Out of the silence and the shade
What is the voice of strange command…

To A. C.Not to the staring Day,
For all the importunate questionings he pursues
In his big, violent voice,
Shall those mild things of bulk and multitude,…

Some starlit garden grey with dew,
Some chamber flushed with wine and fire,
What matters where, so I and you
Are worthy our desire?Behind, a past that scolds and jeers…

‘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 and smiled).…

To D. H.O, Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay,
And I wish from my heart it’s there I was to-day;
I wish from my heart I was far away from here,
Sitting in my parlour and talking to my dear.…

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