William Ernest Henley (Уильям Эрнст Хенли)

In the Dials

To Garryowen upon an organ ground
Two girls are jigging.  Riotously they trip,
With eyes aflame, quick bosoms, hand on hip,
As in the tumult of a witches’ round.
Youngsters and youngsters round them prance and bound.
Two solemn babes twirl ponderously, and skip.
The artist’s teeth gleam from his bearded lip.
High from the kennel howls a tortured hound.
The music reels and hurtles, and the night
Is full of stinks and cries; a naphtha-light
Flares from a barrow; battered and obtused
With vices, wrinkles, life and work and rags,
Each with her inch of clay, two loitering hags
Look on dispassionate—critical—something ’mused.

William Ernest Henley’s other poems:

  1. Rhymes and Rhythms. 23. Here They Trysted, Here They Strayed
  2. Rhymes and Rhythms. Epilogue
  3. Rhymes and Rhythms. 20. The Shadow of Dawn
  4. Rhymes and Rhythms. 21. When the Wind Storms by with a Shout, and the Stern Sea-Caves
  5. Echoes. 14. The Wan Sun Westers, Faint and Slow




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