| Matthew Arnold (1822–88). The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867. 1909. | | | | New Poems, 1867 | | West London |
| | [First published 1867.]
CROUCH’D on the pavement close by Belgrave Square | |
| A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied; | |
| A babe was in her arms, and at her side | |
| A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare. | |
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| Some labouring men, whose work lay somewhere there, | 5 |
| Pass’d opposite; she touch’d her girl, who hied | |
| Across, and begg’d, and came back satisfied. | |
| The rich she had let pass with frozen stare. | |
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| Thought I: Above her state this spirit towers; | |
| She will not ask of aliens, but of friends, | 10 |
| Of sharers in a common human fate. | |
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| She turns from that cold succour, which attends | |
| The unknown little from the unknowing great, | |
| And points us to a better time than ours. | | | | |
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