Page:Foliage, various poems.djvu/56



song is of that city which

Has men too poor and men too rich;

Where some are sick, too richly fed,

While others take the sparrows' bread:

Where some have beds to warm their bones,

While others sleep on hard, cold stones

That suck away their bodies' heat.

Where men are drunk in every street;

Men full of poison, like those flies

That still attack the horses' eyes.

Where some men freeze for want of cloth,

While others show their jewels' worth

And dress in satin, fur or silk;

Where fine rich ladies wash in milk,

While starving mothers have no food

To make them fit in flesh and blood;

So that their watery breasts can give

Their babies milk and make them live.

Where one man does the work of four,

And dies worn out before his hour;

While some seek work in vain, and grief

Doth make their fretful lives as brief.

Where ragged men are seen to wait