Henry Head

Name: Destroyers and Other Verses — "La Mouche"
Author: Henry Head

Biographical details

Henry Head was an English poet whose works engage with themes of war, mortality, and the tension between personal vulnerability and existential resolve. His collections, including Destroyers and Other Verses and About an Upland Meadow — Sun and Shower, examine the futility of conflict, the passage of time, and transient moments of hope.

Poems like To Courage, Seated and Spring Death reflect on the burden of duty and the loss of youth, while I Am Loved By Little Children highlights the comfort derived from human connection. Head’s verse, distinguished by lyrical precision and emotional depth, captures the paradox of perseverance amid despair.

Quotes by Henry Head

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — To Courage… (1919)

“ Like vast antennae, search-lights swept the sky,
When, suddenly, as if in swift reply,
Out of the south, with jets of luminous smoke,
And coughing clatter, hidden guns awoke.
And we fell silent at the thought of dead.
We were too old to leap with panting breath
Into the turmoil of the bloody strife,
And dance upon the razor-edge of life
To fame or to oblivion. We must wait
Like senators of old, with folded hands,
In silence, seated, for the stroke of Fate.
One boon alone an ardent soul demands,
To die before its passion waxes cold,
Enthusiasm fails, or Love grows old. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Within My Arms My Lord Became a Little Child… (1919)

“ Straight grow the sombre winding ways, and at my feet
My narrow path with starry flowers like heaven is spread.
And I who am so little worth, so poor and weak,
Alone about the source of life my watch can keep,
Hold in my arms the labouring world subdued to sleep,
As in the hollow of my hand I hold his cheek.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Spring Death (1919)

“ Love called, and all the world a-trysting sped.
Beneath the whispering plane-trees passion burned,
Glowed like illuminated green in every breast,
Then piping happy songs we homeward turned,
Turned home to rest.
Over the housetop climbs a cowslip moon,
To join the expectant company of stars,
New-risen- And I little care how soon
My feet turn homeward by familiar ways.
No fellowship unbars
That narrow dwelling, where the measured days
Pass, and lever naught to show that they are fled.
I am grown weary, and to me alone
Love pipes a foolish tune, for thou art dead,
And youth is gone. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, No Longer, When the Cold and Sterile Moon… (1919)

“ With rhythmic tides she swept the fore-shoreland,
Whereon I often set my heart’s desire,
Leaving a barren strip of watery sand,
A mirror for the moon’s chaste silver fire.
For I have built a barrier ‘gainst the sea:
No more the moon-swept tide my fruit devours;
The seed is set, and in security,
I watch the silent passage of life’s hours. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — I Cannot Stand and Wait (1919)

“ I CANNOT STAND AND WAIT.
How can I serve who am too old to fight?
I cannot stand and wait
With folded hands, and lay me down at night
In restless expectation that the day
Will bring some stroke of Fate
I cannot help to stay
Once, like the spider in his patterned web,
Based on immutable law,
Boldly I spun the stands of arduous thought,
Now seeming naught,
Rent in the sudden hurricane of war. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, I Am Loved By Little Children… (1919)

“ Baby waking out of slumber
To solitary land
Gathers open-eyed contentment
From my out-stretched hand.
On my arm, he stills his sorrow,
At my breast his wailings cease:
To be loved by little children
Brings me hope and peace. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Deep Within Me Springs a Fountain… (1919)

“ She...
Deep within me springs a fountain,
Leaping upward to the sunlight,
At the sport of little breezes
Rudely scattered.
Dearest, all my veering sorrows
In your warmth are turned to beauty,
And the clear spring of my longing
Sobbing gently,
Ever constant, gay or tearful,
Breaks to dewdrops in the sunshine,
Falling back into my bosom,
Rainbow tinted. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Epiphany (1919)

“ Gold, and a healing balm, and odours sweet.
We too must being our offering, pay the price
To gain the goal of sacramental peace
Where doubts dissolve, insurgent longings cease,
And sorrow is sublimed in sacrifice. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Destroyers (1919)

“ Like cormorants that seek a submerged prey.
An angel of destruction guards the door
And keeps the peace of our ancestral home;
Freedom to dream, to work, and to adore,
These vagrant days, nights of untroubled breath,
Are bought with death. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Elan Vital (1919)

“ When terror keeps the watches of the night
And childhood's faith is gone,
And passion spent,
We stagger to our feet and stumble on
In pain, in sorrow and bewilderment
Impelled to hope by man's instinctive soul. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — The Price (1919)

“ Till, cold and grey,
The dawn rays through my shuttered windows steal
And with closed eyes I thank my God for light,
For the fierce purpose of another day,
When work and thought forbid the heart to feel. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Sleep, My Darling, Naught Can Harm Thee… (1919)

“ Sleep, my darling, naught can harm thee,
May no sudden fear alarm thee,
Let my singing rock thy slumber,
Baby, sleep!
Once within a lowly manger,
Mary hid our Lord from danger:
Soft and silent swings thy cradle,
Baby, sleep! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, The First Fruits of A Pregnant Soul's Increase… (1919)

“ Like little flames of newly-kindled fire
Lie on life’s threshold nearest unto death;
And her life ebbs till she encompasseth
The tender offspring of fulfilled desire
And sinks into impenetrable peace. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Paris… (1919)

“ Discordant vanity is swept away,
And mourners everywhere pass up and down,
Sombring the radiance of an April day.
Here all men wear the inward, brooding look
Of a young mother, when her time is near,
Devoid of fear. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Deep Runs a Silent Music — Sun and Shower (1919)

“ Deep runs a silent music
Through my laborious days:
I set your name, Beloved,
To a hundred thousand lays.
The clang of a distant organ
At the corner leaps and falls.
I go my way rejoicing,
In the love that it recalls. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Willows Are White as Breath Upon Silver… (1919)

“ Far from men, where we sang through the soft summer weather
Lies under the stream.
Come quickly, the night will bring silence and darkness
To cover my tears
And stars will shine brighter above the dark waters
And shadowy weirs. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Died of His Wounds (1919)

“ But lives and grows
Within us as a penetrating ray
Of sunshine on a crystal surface glows
With many-hued refraction. He has fled
Into the unknown silence of the night,
But cannot die till human hearts are dead. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — Pegasus (1919)

“ We catch our breath like children at a show
Of martial arts and heroic deeds,
On every glittering incident intent,
Forgetting for a time terrestrial creeds
For joy that man now rides the firmament. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — "La Mouche" (1919)

“ In 1855 she was living in Paris with her mother, supporting herself by teaching. Heine had always been one of her heroes, and a chance commission gave her the opportunity of calling upon him in the Avenue Matignon. He was entirely confined to his bed by the disease that ultimately proved fatal, and found pleasure in her brightness and in the activity of her mind. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Henry Head, Destroyers and Other Verses — "La Mouche" (1919)

“ Then followed "Camille Selden's" unhappy marriage to a Frenchman who ran through her money, and shut her up in a lunatic asylum. She was, however, speedily released, and shortly afterwards obtained a separation from her husband. ”

Henry Head

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