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William Ernest Henley Quotes

1849–1903 England

William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903) was an English poet, critic and editor.

England
Editors
Non-fiction authors
Poets

Also known as: W. E. Henley

Random William Ernest Henley quote

40 quotes

From the winter's gray despair,
From the summer’s golden languor,
Death, the lover of Life,
Frees us for ever.

A Book of Verses (1888)

'Life is worth Living
Through every grain of it,
From the foundations
To the last edge
Of the cornerstone, death.'

Poems (1898)

Night with her train of stars
And her great gift of sleep.

A Book of Verses (1888)

Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

A Book of Verses (1888)

Life — life — life! 'Tis the sole great thing
This side of death,
Heart on heart in the wonder of Spring!

Hawthorn and Lavender (1901)

Who says that we shall pass, or the fame of us fade and die,
While the living stars fulfil their round in the living sky?

Poems (1898)

Life is (I think) a blunder and a shame.

A Book of Verses (1888)

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

A Book of Verses (1888)

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.

Poems (1898)

Open your heart and take us in,
Love—love and me.

Men may scoff, and men may pray,
But they pay
Every pleasure with a pain.

Marching, building, sailing, pillar of cloud or fire,
Sons of the Will, we fought the fight of the Will, our sire.

Poems (1898)

As dust that drives, as straws that blow,
Into the night go one and all.

A Book of Verses (1888)

I captain an army
Of shining and generous dreams.

A Book of Verses (1888)

Now die the dream, or come the wife,
The past is not in vain,
For wholly as it was your life
Can never be again, my dear,
Can never be again.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

A Book of Verses (1888)

Dear, was it really you and I?
In truth the riddle's ill to read,
So many are the deaths we die
Before we can be dead indeed.

Poems (1898)

Life — life — let there be life!
Better a thousand times the roaring hours
When wave and wind,
Like the Arch-Murderer in flight
From the Avenger at his heel,
Storm through the desolate fastnesses
And wild waste places of the world!

Poems (1898)

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

Invictus (1875)

Far in the stillness a cat
Languishes loudly. A cinder
Falls, and the shadows
Lurch to the leap of the flame.

A Book of Verses (1888)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Ernest Henley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.