“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. I saw, I took, I cast you by, I bent and broke your pride... And a myriad suns have set and shone, since then upon the grave, Decreed by the King in Babylon, to her that had been his slave. The pride I trampled is now my scathe, for it tramples me again. The old remnant lasts like death for you love, yet you refrain. I break my heart on your hard unfaith, and I break my heart in vain.” WorldYearsHeartHardChristianLastsBreakSunGoneSawsPrideKingsMy HeartSlaveCastsKarmaGravesBrokeVainBentRefrainOld WorldRemnantsBreaking My HeartBabylon Author:William Ernest Henley
“Life - life - let there be life! Better a thousand times the roaring hours When wave and wind, Like the Arch-Murderer in flight From the Avenger at his heel, Storm through the desolate fastnesses And wild waste places of the world!” WorldLifeHoursWindThousandWasteWaveStormFlightHeelsMurdererRoaringArchesDesolateAvengers Book:Poems Source: Poems
“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 with the dawn of night began With the dusk of day was done; For that is the way of woman and man, When a hazard has made them one. Arc upon arc, from shade to shine, The World went thundering free; And what was his errand but hers and mine - The lords of him, I and she? O, it's die we must, but it's live we can, And the marvel of earth and sun Is all for the joy of woman and man And the longing that makes them one.” MenWorldWayMadeDoneEarthJoyNightDiesLordSunMinesSummerMen And WomenLongingShiningCaughtMoodFlightDawnShadeJulyHazardsArcsDuskStoopsErrandsSummer DaysSummer NightsEarth And Sun Book:Poems Source: Poems
“Essayists, like poets, are born and not made, and for one worth remembering, the world is confronted with a hundred not worth reading. Your true essayist is, in a literary sense, the friend of everybody.” WorldMadeRememberReadingBornPoetHundredEssayistsWorth Reading Book:The Works of William Ernest Henley: Views and reviews Source: The Works of William Ernest Henley: Views and reviews
“Now, to read poetry at all is to have an ideal anthology of one's own, and in that possession to be incapable of content with the anthologies of all the world besides.” WorldIdealsPossessionIncapableAnthology Book:Lyra Heroica: A Book of Verse for Boys Source: Lyra Heroica: A Book of Verse for Boys