Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | London | | West London | | Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | | CROUCHED 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. | |
| |
| Some laboring men, whose work lay somewhere there, | 5 |
| Passed opposite; she touched her girl, who hied | |
| Across, and begged, and came back satisfied. | |
| The rich she had let pass with frozen stare. | |
| |
| 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. | |
| |
| She turns from that cold succor which attends | |
| The unknown little from the unknowing great, | |
| And points us to a better time than ours. | | | | |
|
|
