Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF I WERE KING by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF I WERE KING, MY PIPE SHOULD BE PREMIER
Last Line: IF I WERE KING.
Subject(s): SMOKING; TOBACCO; PIPES; CIGARS; CIGARETTES;
IF I were King, my pipe should be premier.
The skies of time and chance are seldom clear;
We would inform them all with azure weather.
Delight alone would need to shed a tear,
For dream and deed should war no more together.
Art should aspire, yet ugliness be dear;
Beauty, the shaft, should speed with wit for feather;
And love, sweet love, should never fall to sere,
If I were King.

But politics should find no harbour near;
The Philistine should dread to slip his tether;
Tobacco should be duty free, and beer;
In fact, in room of this, the age of leather,
An age of gold all radiant should appear,
If I were King.



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