Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN HOSPITAL: 25. APPARITION by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THIN-LEGGED, THIN-CHESTED, SLIGHT UNSPEAKABLE
Last Line: AND SOMETHING OF THE SHORTER-CATECHIST.
Subject(s): HOSPITALS;

Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably,
Neat-footed and weak-fingered: in his face --
Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race,
Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea,
The brown eyes radiant with a vivacity --
There shines a brilliant and romantic grace,
A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace
Of passion and impudence and energy.
Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck,
Most vain, most generous, sternly critical,
Buffoon and poet, lover and sensualist:
A deal of Ariel, just a streak of Puck,
Much Antony, of Hamlet most of all,
And something of the Shorter-Catechist.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net