Let Us Be Drunk

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



Let us be drunk, and for a while forget,
Forget, and, ceasing even from regret,
Live without reason and despite of rhyme,
As in a dream preposterous and sublime,
Where place and hour and means for once are met.

Where is the use of effort? Love and debt
And disappointment have us in a net.
Let us break out, and taste the morning prime . . .
Let us be drunk.

In vain our little hour we strut and fret,
And mouth our wretched parts as for a bet:
We cannot please the tragicaster Time.
To gain the crystal sphere, the silver dime,
Where Sympathy sits dimpling on us yet,
Let us be drunk!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
52

Quick analysis:

Scheme aabba aabC aabbaC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 579
Words 113
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 6

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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