Her Little Feet

Her little feet!... Beneath us ranged the sea,
    She sat, from sun and wind umbrella-shaded,
One shoe above the other danglingly,
    And lo! a Something exquisitely graded,
Brown rings and white, distracting - to the knee!

The band was loud. A wild waltz melody
    Flowed rhythmic forth. The nobodies paraded.
And thro' my dream went pulsing fast and free:
        Her little feet.

Till she made room for some one. It was He!
    A port-wine flavored He, a He who traded,
Rich, rosy, round, obese to a degree!
A sense of injury overmastered me.
    Quite bulbously his ample boots upbraided
        Her little feet.

                        William Ernest Henley.

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic, and editor. Despite battling tuberculosis from a young age, Henley is best known for his resilience and strength, qualities exemplified in his most famous poem, 'Invictus'. Henley was also a notable figure in the literary circles of his time, befriending and influencing key writers, such as Robert Louis Stevenson, who modeled the character Long John Silver after him.

William Ernest Henley

The Ways Are Green

William Ernest Henley, Simple Poetry

She Sauntered By The Swinging Seas

William Ernest Henley, Simple Poetry

In Hospital - XXII - Pastoral

William Ernest Henley, Simple Poetry

Friends. . . Old Friends

William Ernest Henley, Simple Poetry

English

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London Voluntaries - To Charles Whibley - II - Andante Con Moto

Forth from the dust and din,
The crush, the heat, the many-spotted glare,
The odour and sense of life and lust aflare,
The wrangle and jangle of unrests,
Let us take horse, Dear Heart, take horse and win -
As from swart August to the green lap of May -
To quietness and the fresh and fragrant breasts
Of the still, delicious night, not yet aware
In any of her innumerable nests
Of that first sudden plash of dawn,
Clear, sapphirine, luminous, large,
Which tells that soon the flowing springs of day
In deep and ever deeper eddies drawn
Forward and up, in wider and wider way,
Shall float the sands, and brim the shores,
On this our lith of the World, as round it roars
And spins into the outlook of the Sun
(The Lord's first gift, the Lord's especial charge),
...

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Upon Her Feet

Her pretty feet
Like snails did creep
A little out, and then,
As if they played at Bo-peep,
Did soon draw in again.

Robert Herrick

At Her Feet

My head is at your feet,
Two Cytherean doves,
The same, O cruel sweet,
As were the Queen of Love's;
They brush my dreaming brows
With silver fluttering beat,
Here in your golden house,
Beneath your feet.

No man that draweth breath
Is in such happy case:
My heart to itself saith -
Though kings gaze on her face,
I would not change my place;
To lie here is more sweet,
Here at her feet.

As one in a green land
Beneath a rose-bush lies,
Two petals in his hand,
With shut and dreaming eyes,
And hears the rustling stir,
As the young morning goes,
Shaking abroad the myrrh
Of each awakened rose;
So to me lying there
Comes the soft breath of her, -
O cruel sweet! -
There at her feet.

O little careles...

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The Lost Shoe

Poor little Lucy
    By some mischance,
Lost her shoe
    As she did dance -
'Twas not on the stairs,
    Not in the hall;
Not where they sat
    At supper at all.
She looked in the garden,
    But there it was not;
Henhouse, or kennel,
    Or high dovecote.
Dairy and meadow,
    And wild woods through
Showed not a trace
    Of Lucy's shoe.
Bird nor bunny
    Nor glimmering moon
Breathed a whisper
    Of where 'twas gone.
It was cried and cried,
    Oyez and Oyez!
In French, Dutch, Latin,
    And Portuguese.
Ships the dark seas
    Went plunging through,
But none brought news
    Of Lucy's shoe;
And still she patters
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Faithless Nelly Gray. - A Pathetic Ballad.

Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms!

Now as they bore him off the field,
Said he, "Let others shoot,
For here I leave my second leg,
And the Forty-second Foot!"

The army-surgeons made him limbs:
Said he, - "They're only pegs:
But there's as wooden members quite,
As represent my legs!"

Now Ben he loved a pretty maid,
Her name was Nelly Gray;
So he went to pay her his devours,
When he'd devour'd his pay!

But when he called on Nelly Gray,
She made him quite a scoff;
And when she saw his wooden legs,
Began to take them off!

"O, Nelly Gray! O, Nelly Gray!
Is this your love so warm?
The love that loves a scarlet coat
Sho...

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Rhymes And Rhythms - X

Midsummer midnight skies,
Midsummer midnight influences and airs,
The shining sensitive silver of the sea
Touched with the strange-hued blazonings of dawn:
And all so solemnly still I seem to hear
The breathing of Life and Death,
The secular Accomplices,
Renewing the visible miracle of the world.

The wistful stars
Shine like good memories.    The young morning wind
Blows full of unforgotten hours
As over a region of roses.    Life and Death
Sound on, sound on. . . . And the night magical,
Troubled yet comforting, thrills
As if the Enchanted Castle at the heart
Of the wood's dark wonderment
Swung wide his valves and filled the dim sea-banks
With exquisite visitants:
Words fiery-hearted yet, dreams and desires
With living looks intolerable, ...

William Ernest Henley