BARMAID
by: William Ernest Henley
(1849-1903)
- HOUGH, if
you ask her name, she says Elise,
- Being plain Elizabeth, e'en let it pass,
- And own that, if her aspirates take their ease,
- She ever makes a point, in washing glass,
- Handling the engine, turning taps for tots,
- And countering change, and scorning what men say,
- Of posing as a dove among the pots,
- Nor often gives her dignity away.
- Her head's a work of art, and, if her eyes
- Be tired and ignorant, she has a waist;
- Cheaply the Mode she shadows; and she tries
- From penny novels to amend her taste;
- And, having mopped the zinc for certain years,
- And faced the gas, she fades and disappears.
"Barmaid" is reprinted
from Poems. William Ernest Henley. London: Macmillan and
Co., 1920. |
MORE POEMS BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY |
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