William Ernest Henley

In Hospital. 3. Interior

      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 the 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!