[ { "title": "The Rain and the Wind", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "The rain and the wind, the wind and the rain --", "They are with us like a disease:", "They worry the heart, they work the brain,", "As they shoulder and clutch at the shrieking pane,", "And savage the helpless trees.", "", "What does it profit a man to know", "These tattered and tumbling skies", "A million stately stars will show,", "And the ruining grace of the after-glow", "And the rush of the wild sunrise?", "", "Ever the rain -- the rain and the wind!", "Come, hunch with me over the fire,", "Dream of the dreams that leered and grinned,", "Ere the blood of the Year got chilled and thinned,", "And the death came on desire!" ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "Double Ballade on the Nothingness of Things", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "The big teetotum twirls,", "And epochs wax and wane", "As chance subsides or swirls;", "But of the loss and gain", "The sum is always plain.", "Read on the mighty pall,", "The weed of funeral", "That covers praise and blame,", "The -isms and the -anities,", "Magnificence and shame:--", "\"O Vanity of Vanities!\"", "", "The Fates are subtle girls!", "They give us chaff for grain.", "And Time, the Thunderer, hurls,", "Like bolted death, disdain", "At all that heart and brain", "Conceive, or great or small,", "Upon this earthly ball.", "Would you be knight and dame?", "Or woo the sweet humanities?", "Or illustrate a name?", "O Vanity of Vanities!", "", "We sound the sea for pearls,", "Or drown them in a drain;", "We flute it with the merles,", "Or tug and sweat and strain;", "We grovel, or we reign;", "We saunter, or we brawl;", "We search the stars for Fame,", "Or sink her subterranities;", "The legend's still the same:--", "\"O Vanity of Vanities!\"", "", "Here at the wine one birls,", "There some one clanks a chain.", "The flag that this man furls", "That man to float is fain.", "Pleasure gives place to pain:", "These in the kennel crawl,", "While others take the wall.", "She has a glorious aim,", "He lives for the inanities.", "What come of every claim?", "O Vanity of Vanities!", "", "Alike are clods and earls.", "For sot, and seer, and swain,", "For emperors and for churls,", "For antidote and bane,", "There is but one refrain:", "But one for king and thrall,", "For David and for Saul,", "For fleet of foot and lame,", "For pieties and profanities,", "The picture and the frame:--", "\"O Vanity of Vanities!\"", "", "Life is a smoke that curls--", "Curls in a flickering skein,", "That winds and whisks and whirls,", "A figment thin and vain,", "Into the vast Inane.", "One end for hut and hall!", "One end for cell and stall!", "Burned in one common flame", "Are wisdoms and insanities.", "For this alone we came:--", "\"O Vanity of Vanities!\"", "", "Envoy", "Prince, pride must have a fall.", "What is the worth of all", "Your state's supreme urbanities?", "Bad at the best's the game.", "Well might the Sage exclaim:--", "\"O Vanity of Vanities!\"" ], "linecount": "72" }, { "title": "Between the Dusk of a Summer Night", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "Between the dusk of a summer night", "And the dawn of a summer day,", "We caught at a mood as it passed in flight,", "And we bade it stoop and stay.", "And what with the dawn of night began", "With the dusk of day was done;", "For that is the way of woman and man,", "When a hazard has made them one.", "Arc upon arc, from shade to shine,", "The World went thundering free;", "And what was his errand but hers and mine --", "The lords of him, I and she?", "O, it's die we must, but it's live we can,", "And the marvel of earth and sun", "Is all for the joy of woman and man", "And the longing that makes them one." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Ballade of Dead Actors", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "Where are the passions they essayed,", "And where the tears they made to flow?", "Where the wild humours they portrayed", "For laughing worlds to see and know?", "Othello's wrath and Juliet's woe?", "Sir Peter's whims and Timon's gall?", "And Millamant and Romeo?", "Into the night go one and all.", "Where are the braveries, fresh or frayed?", "The plumes, the armours -- friend and foe?", "The cloth of gold, the rare brocade,", "The mantles glittering to and fro?", "The pomp, the pride, the royal show?", "The cries of war and festival?", "The youth, the grace, the charm, the glow?", "Into the night go one and all.", "The curtain falls, the play is played:", "The Beggar packs beside the Beau;", "The Monarch troops, and troops the Maid;", "The Thunder huddles with the Snow.", "Where are the revellers high and low?", "The clashing swords? The lover's call?", "The dancers gleaming row on row?", "Into the night go one and all." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "O Gather Me the Rose", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "O gather me the rose, the rose,", "While yet in flower we find it,", "For summer smiles, but summer goes,", "And winter waits behind it.", "", "For with the dream foregone, foregone,", "The deed foreborn forever,", "The worm Regret will canker on,", "And time will turn him never.", "", "So were it well to love, my love,", "And cheat of any laughter", "The fate beneath us, and above,", "The dark before and after.", "", "The myrtle and the rose, the rose,", "The sunshine and the swallow,", "The dream that comes, the wish that goes", "The memories that follow!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Madam Life's a Piece in Bloom", "author": "William Ernest Henley", "lines": [ "Madam Life's a piece in bloom", "Death goes dogging everywhere:", "She's the tenant of the room,", "He's the ruffian on the stair.", "", "You shall see her as a friend,", "You shall bilk him once or twice;", "But he'll trap you in the end,", "And he'll stick you for her price.", "", "With his kneebones at your chest,", "And his knuckles in your throat,", "You would reason -- plead -- protest!", "Clutching at her petticoat;", "", "But she's heard it all before,", "Well she knows you've had your fun,", "Gingerly she gains the door,", "And your little job is done." ], "linecount": "16" } ]