Page:The Village - Crabbe (1783).djvu/22

 Their's is yon house that holds the parish poor, Whole walls of mud scarce bear the broken door; There, where the putrid vapours flagging, play, And the dull wheel hums doleful through the day; There children dwell who know no parents' care, Parents, who know no children's love, dwell there; Heart-broken matrons on their joyless bed, Forsaken wives and mothers never wed; Dejected widows with unheeded tears, And crippled age with more than childhood-fears; The lame, the blind, and, far the happiest they! The moping idiot and the madman gay.

Here too the sick their final doom receive, Here brought amid the scenes of grief, to grieve; Where the loud groans from some sad chamber flow, Mixt with the clamours of the croud below; Here