Enter Patient
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
The morning mists still haunt the stony street;
The northern summer air is shrill and cold;
And lo, the Hospital, grey, quiet, old,
Where Life and Death like friendly chafferers meet.
Thro' the loud spaciousness and draughty gloom
A small, strange child-so aged yet so young! -
Her little arm besplinted and beslung,
Precedes me gravely to the waiting-room.
I limp behind, my confidence all gone.
The grey-haired soldier-porter waves me on,
And on I crawl, and still my spirits fail:
A tragic meanness seems so to environ
These corridors and stairs of stone and iron,
Cold, naked, clean-half-workhouse and half-jail.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 44 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBACDDCEFGEHG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 611 |
Words | 103 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"Enter Patient" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40467/enter-patient>.
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