Sunshine And Smoke - A Book Of Verse (1895) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A SOLILOQUY IN EATON SQUARE. The summei sun is shining on the Square, And seems to bring a gleam of country gladness To give the town-bred trees a brighter air, And force a smile upon the city's sadness. It glances down upon a grimy seat, On which is stretched the raggedest of creatures,- Some nameless, homeless haunter of the street, With matted hair, and most forbidding features. He turns his eyes towards me, like a cat That views its prey with greedy expectation ; Then, touching what must once have been a hat, Assails me with a whining supplication. Of course, I pay no heed,?we're always taught That beggars do this sort of thing for pleasure j Their piteous tales are never worth a thought, But just composed to wile away their leisure. Besides, we know those only starve who shirk The toil by Nature's kindly laws directed, And so the rich, ?who die of overwork,? To sympathise can scarcely be expected. Not that I'm rich ;?but, still, I'm one of those Who sometimes pass within the sacred portals Of Mammon's shrine, whose glory always throws- Its glamour even on such humble mortals. Combined with some slight difference of birth It stamps this beggar here as my inferior ; Though, if we came to reckon up our worth, It might be hard to prove myself superior. True, I've a cleaner collar round my throat, Much better boots, and hands a trifle paler, A silken necktie, and a decent coat (For which I owe my too-confiding tailor). My mind, moreover, has been made a tomb For some dead languages and other knowledge, Though slight, yet not possessed by those for whom Millbank or Portland is the only college. But when you get beyond the outer shell, The bodily and mental clothes that screen us, To tastes and morals,...