Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

From In Hospital: Staff-nurse: New Style

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.

Kindly and calm, patrician to the last,

Superbly falls her gown of sober grey,

And on her chignon’s elegant array

The plainest cap is somehow touched with caste.

She talks BEETHOVEN; frowns diapprobation

At BALZAC’S name, sighs it at “poor GEORGE SAND’S”;

Knows that she has exceeding pretty hands;

Speaks Latin with a right accentuation;

And gives at need (as one who understands)

Draught, counsel, diagnosis, exhortation.