Children: Private Ward
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
Here in this dim, dull, double-bedded room,
I play the father to a brace of boys,
Ailing but apt for every sort of noise,
Bedfast but brilliant yet with health and bloom.
Roden, the Irishman, is 'sieven past,'
Blue-eyed, snub-nosed, chubby, and fair of face.
Willie's but six, and seems to like the place,
A cheerful little collier to the last.
They eat, and laugh, and sing, and fight, all day;
All night they sleep like dormice. See them play
At Operations:- Roden, the Professor,
Saws, lectures, takes the artery up, and ties;
Willie, self-chloroformed, with half-shut eyes,
Holding the limb and moaning-Case and Dresser.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 52 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBACDDCEEFGGF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 619 |
Words | 109 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"Children: Private Ward" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40456/children:-private-ward>.
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