Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECHOES: 37. TO W.A., by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECHOES: 37. TO W.A., by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Or ever the knightly years were gone
Last Line: And you were a virgin slave.
Alternate Author Name(s): Henley, W. E.
Variant Title(s): The Christian Slave;when I Was A King In Babylon
Subject(s): Babylon


Or ever the knightly years were gone
With the old world to the grave,
I was a king in Babylon
And you were a Christian slave.

I saw, I took, I cast you by,
I bent and broke your pride.
You loved me well, or I heard them lie,
But your longing was denied.
Surely I knew that by and by
You cursed your gods and died.

And a myriad suns have set and shone
Since then upon the grave
Decreed by the king of Babylon
To her that had been his Slave.

The pride I trampled is now my scathe,
For it tramples me again.
The old resentment lasts like death,
For you love, yet you refrain.
I break my heart on your hard unfaith,
And I break my heart in vain.

Yet not for an hour do I wish undone
The deed beyond the grave,
When I was a King in Babylon
And you were a Virgin Slave.





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