Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RHYMES AND RHYTHMS: 15, by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RHYMES AND RHYTHMS: 15, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: You played and sang a snatch of song
Last Line: Before we can be dead indeed.
Alternate Author Name(s): Henley, W. E.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


You played and sang a snatch of song,
A song that all-too well we knew;
But whither had flown the ancient wrong;
And was it really I and you?
O, since the end of life's to live
And pay in pence the common debt,
What should it cost us to forgive
Whose daily task is to forget?

You babbled in the well-known voice --
Not new, not new the words you said.
You touched me off that famous poise,
That old effect, of neck and head.
Dear, was it really you and I?
In truth the riddle's ill to read,
So many are the deaths we die
Before we can be dead indeed.





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