Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/111



HE sights and sounds of the wretched street

Oppressed me, and I said: "We cheat

Our hearts with hope. Man sunken lies

In vice, and naught that's fair or sweet

Finds further favor in his eyes.

Vainly we strive, in sanguine mood,

To elevate a savage brood

That, from the cradle, sordid, dull,

No longer has a wish for good,

Or craving for the beautiful."

I said; but chiding my despair,

My wiser friend just pointed where,

By some indifferent passer thrown

Upon a heap of ashes bare,

The loose leaves of a rose were sown.

And I, 'twixt tenderness and doubt,

Beheld, while pity grew devout,

A squalid and uneager child,

With careful fingers picking out

The scentless petals, dust-defiled.