Verses (Baughan)/Dives and Lazarus
DIVES AND LAZARUS
I wander thro’ the streets, and see
The poor man and the rich;
But I am sure that God alone
Knows rightly which is which.—
—There was an old man once, who bore
A tray of wither’d fruit;
It snow’d; and people hurried by,
Deaf to his quavering suit.
Last, by a lit wide-window’d shop
With doubled prayers he plied
One who, alas! like all the rest
Unheeding, pushed inside,
Where the pinch’d face against the glass
Might watch him fling down gold
For a few flowers, that all would be
Dust ere the week was old.
Then turned the beggar to the cur
That shivering by him stood:
“Ay, Mick! yon lad has gold for flowers;
We haven’t pence for food!”
But ah! those instant-lifted eyes,
How loving, patient, true!
Till Love in those down-cast cried out
“Right, friend! I have got you!”
—He of the rare load, coming home,
Upon a cold still bed
Cast it, with tears. He, too, had had
One friend. She lay there, dead.
—I wander through the streets, and see
The poor man and the rich,
And sure I am that God alone
Knows rightly which is which!