Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECHOES: 36 by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I GAVE MY HEART TO A WOMAN
Last Line: HAD TURNED TO A LIVING SONG.
I gave my heart to a woman --
I gave it to her, branch and root.
She bruised, she wrung, she tortured,
She cast it under foot.

Under her feet she cast it,
She trampled it where it fell,
She broke it all to pieces,
And each was a clot of hell.

There in the rain and the sunshine
They lay and smouldered long;
And each, when again she viewed them,
Had turned to a living song.



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