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Poems

by William Ernest Henley

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To H. D. C.

If I were king my pipe should be premier.
The skies of time and chance are seldom clear;
We would inform them all with azure weather.
Delight alone would need to shed a tear,
For dream and deed should war no more together.
Art should aspire, yet ugliness be dear;
Beauty, the shaft, should speed with wit for feather;
And love, sweet love, should never fall to sere
If I were king.
But politics should find no harbour near;
The Philistine should dread to slip his tether;
Tobacco should be duty free, and beer;

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In fact, in room of this the age of leather,
An age of gold all radiant should appear
If I were king.