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In Hospital - XVIII - Children: Private Ward

By William Ernest Henley

Topics: classic

Here in this dim, dull, double-bedded room,     I play the father to a brace of boys,     Ailing but apt for every sort of noise,     Bedfast but brilliant yet with health and bloom.     Roden, the Irishman, is 'sieven past,'     Blue-eyed, snub-nosed, chubby, and fair of face.     Willie's but six, and seems to like the place,     A cheerful little collier to the last.     They eat, and laugh, and sing, and fight, all day;     All night they sleep like dormice.    See them play     At Operations:- Roden, the Professor,     Saws, lectures, takes the artery up, and ties;     Willie, self-chloroformed, with half-shut eyes,     Holding the limb and moaning - Case and Dresser.

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Author:William Ernest Henley

"Here in this dim, dull, double-bedded room,..." by William Ernest Henley

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William Ernest Henley

About William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) was an English poet, critic, and editor best known for his poem "Invictus" ("I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul"). Written while recovering from tuberculosis of the bone, it has become one of the most quoted poems of courage and resilience.

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