Waiting
William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)
A square, squat room (a cellar on promotion),
Drab to the soul, drab to the very daylight;
Plasters astray in unnatural-looking tinware;
Scissors and lint and apothecary's jars.
Here, on a bench a skeleton would writhe from,
Angry and sore, I wait to be admitted:
Wait till my heart is lead upon my stomach,
While at their ease two dressers do their chores.
One has a probe-it feels to me a crowbar.
A small boy sniffs and shudders after bluestone.
A poor old tramp explains his poor old ulcers.
Life is (I think) a blunder and a shame.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 06, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 226 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXAX XXXX AXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 533 |
Words | 100 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4 |
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"Waiting" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40580/waiting>.
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