Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume III/The Poor

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CHAPTER V.


THE FÊTE AT SIR ROBERT WALPOLE'S.


Few, save the poor, feel for the poor:
    The rich know not how hard
It is to be of needful food
    And needful rest debarred.

Their paths are paths of plenteousness,
    They sleep on silk and down;
And never think how heavily
    The weary head lies down.

They know not of the scanty meal,
    With small pale faces round;
No fire upon the cold damp hearth
    When snow is on the ground.

They never by the window lean,
    And see the gay pass by;
Then take their weary task again,
    But with a sadder eye.



Blanchard’s title is:

THE POOR


From The Widow’s Mite in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836

In The New York Mirror (17th February 1838), as The Rich and the Poor