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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN HOSPITAL: 3. INTERIOR, by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY Poet's Biography
First Line: The gaunt brown walls
Last Line: O, a gruesome world!
Alternate Author Name(s): Henley, W. E.
Subject(s): Hospitals
First Line: The gaunt brown walls
Last Line: O, a gruesome world!
Alternate Author Name(s): Henley, W. E.
Subject(s): Hospitals
The gaunt brown walls
Look infinite in their decent meanness.
There is nothing of home in the noisy kettle,
The fulsome fire.
The atmosphere
Suggests trail of a ghostly druggist.
Dressings and lint on the long, lean table --
Whom are they for?
The patients yawn,
Or lie as in training for shroud and coffin.
A nurse in the corridor scolds and wrangles.
It's grim and strange.
Far footfalls clank.
The bad burn waits with his head unbandaged.
My neighbour chokes in the clutch of chloral . . .
O, a gruesome world!
Other Poems of Interest...
AT THE CANCER CLINIC by TED KOOSER
HAVING BEEN ASKED WHAT IS A MAN? I ANSWER by PHILIP LEVINE
NEW YEAR'S EVE, IN HOSPITAL by PHILIP LEVINE
THE DEMOCRATIC DIME by EVE MERRIAM
THIS DID NOT HAPPEN by THYLIAS MOSS
HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM by STEPHEN DOBYNS
WALT WHITMAN IN THE CIVIL WAR HOSPITALS by DAVID IGNATOW