Quote#Work
Hark how the Trumpet
Quote byWilliam Ernest Henley · 1849–1903
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Song of the Sword, &c. (1892) title poem.
English (original)
Hark how the Trumpet, The mistress of mistresses, Calls, silver-throated And stern, where the tables Are spread, and the work Of the Lord is in hand! Driving the darkness, Even as the banners And spears of the Morning; Sifting the nations, The slag from the metal, The waste and the weak From the fit and the strong; Fighting the brute.
— William Ernest Henley
More from William Ernest Henley
From the winter's gray despair, From the summer’s golden languor, Death, the lover of Life, Frees us for ever.
Bland as a Jesuit, sober as a hymn.
Life is (I think) a blunder and a shame.
Far in the stillness a cat Languishes loudly. A cinder Falls, and the shadows Lurch to the leap of the flame.
Ho! then, the splendour And sheen of my ministry, Clothing the earth With a livery of lightnings! Ho! then, the music Of battles in onset
Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck, Most vain, most generous, sternly critical, Buffoon and poet, lover and sensualist: A deal of Ariel, just a streak of Puck, Much Antony, of Hamlet most of all, And something of the Shorter-Catechist.