Poem by William Ernest Henley

In Hospital. 27. Nocturn

At the barren heart of midnight,
When the shadow shuts and opens
As the loud flames pulse and flutter,
I can hear a cistern leaking.

Dripping, dropping, in a rhythm,
Rough, unequal, half-melodious,
Like the measures aped from nature
In the infancy of music;

Like the buzzing of an insect,
Still, irrational, persistent . . .
I must listen, listen, listen
In a passion of attention;

Till it taps upon my heartstrings,
And my very life goes dripping,
Dropping, dripping, drip-drip-dropping,
In the drip-drop of the cistern. 

1. In Hospital. 8. Staff-Nurse: Old Style
2. In Hospital. 26. Anterotics
3. In the Dials
4. Echoes. 14. The Wan Sun Westers, Faint and Slow
5. Echoes. 20. The Surges Gushed and Sounded

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