Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/812

 The "Pinch of Poverty"

(English poet, 1860-1907, who lived neglected and died in misery)

'Tis the convinced belief of mankind that to make a poet sing you must pinch his belly, as if the Almighty had constructed him like a certain rudimentary vocal doll.

Man as God

(From "A Ballad in Blank Verse")

(See pages 216, 761)

How vain! he cried. A God? a mole, a worm! An engine frail, of brittle bones conjoined; With tissue packed; with nerves, transmitting force; And driven by water, thick and coloured red: That may for some few pence a day be hired In thousands to be shot at! Oh, a God, That lies and steals and murders! Such a God Passionate, dissolute, incontinent! A God that starves in thousands, and ashamed, Or shameless in the workhouse lurks; that sweats In mines and foundries! An enchanted God, Whose nostrils in a palace breathe perfume, Whose cracking shoulders hold the palace up, Whose shoeless feet are rotting in the mire!