Page:Poems, Volume 1, Coates, 1916.djvu/135



NTO the theatre they came—

Children of poverty, of shame,

Of folly, of despair.

Elbowing rudely, Jill and Jack,

A nearer view to win,

Youths, men, and women, white and black,

Pell-mell, they jostled in.

A wretched place of poor resort,

Far from the world polite,

Few pennies bought the meagre sport

So fruitful of delight,

And gazing there, each brutish face,

The godlike stamp resigned,

A tablet seemed whereon disgrace

Had written thoughts unkind.