Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke
William Ernest Henley (18491903)To W. A.
O
With the old world to the grave,
I was a King in Babylon
And you were a Christian Slave.
I bent and broke your pride.
You loved me well, or I heard them lie,
But your longing was denied.
Surely I knew that by and by
You cursed your gods and died.
Since then upon the grave
Decreed by the King in Babylon
To her that had been his Slave.
For it tramples me again.
The old resentment lasts like death,
For you love, yet you refrain.
I break my heart on your hard unfaith,
And I break my heart in vain.
The deed beyond the grave,
When I was a King in Babylon
And you were a Virgin Slave.