Behold me waiting—waiting for the knife.

A little while, and at a leap I storm

The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform,

The drunken dark, the little death-in-life.

The gods are good to me : I have no wife,

No innocent child, to think of as I near

The fateful minute ; nothing all-too dear

Unmans me for my bout of passive strife.

Yet am I tremulous and a trifle sick,

And, face to face with chance, I shrink a little :

My hopes are strong, my will is something weak.

Here comes the basket? Thank you. I am ready.

But, gentlemen my porters, life is brittle :

You carry Cæsar and his fortunes—steady !

William Earnest Henley,

London Voluntaries, 1898.