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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN HOSPITAL: 3. INTERIOR by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE GAUNT BROWN WALLS
Last Line: O, A GRUESOME WORLD!
Subject(s): HOSPITALS;

The gaunt brown walls
Look infinite in their decent meanness.
There is nothing of home in the noisy kettle,
The fulsome fire.

The atmosphere
Suggests trail of a ghostly druggist.
Dressings and lint on the long, lean table --
Whom are they for?

The patients yawn,
Or lie as in training for shroud and coffin.
A nurse in the corridor scolds and wrangles.
It's grim and strange.

Far footfalls clank.
The bad burn waits with his head unbandaged.
My neighbour chokes in the clutch of chloral . . .
O, a gruesome world!



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