| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| Eviction |
| | | William James Linton (1812–97) |
| |
| |
| LONG 1 years their cabin stood | |
| Out on the moor; | |
| More than one sorrow-brood | |
| Pass’d through their door; | |
| Ruin them over-cast, | 5 |
| Worse than one wintry blast; | |
| Famine’s plague follow’d fast: | |
| God help the poor! | |
| |
| There on that heap of fern, | |
| Gasping for breath, | 10 |
| Lieth the wretched kérn, | |
| Waiting for death: | |
| Famine had brought him low; | |
| Fever had caught him so,— | |
| O thou sharp-grinding woe, | 15 |
| Outwear thy sheath! | |
| |
| Dying, or living here— | |
| Which is the worse? | |
| Misery’s heavy tear, | |
| Back to thy source! | 20 |
| Who dares to lift her head | |
| Up from the scarcely dead? | |
| Who pulls the crazy shed | |
| Down on the corse? | |
| |
| What though some rent was due, | 25 |
| Hast thou no grace? | |
| So may God pardon you, | |
| Shame of your race! | |
| What though that home may be | |
| Wretched and foul to see, | 30 |
| What if God harry thee | |
| Forth from His face? | |
| |
| Widow’d and orphan’d ones, | |
| Flung from your rest! | |
| Where will you lay your bones? | 35 |
| Bad was your best. | |
| Out on the dreary road, | |
| Where shall be their abode? | |
| One of them sleeps with God: | |
| Where are the rest? | 40 |
|
|
|
