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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  Poverty

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Poverty

By Alcæus (c. 620–c. 580 B.C.)

Translation of Sir William Jones

THE WORST of ills, and hardest to endure,

Past hope, past cure,

Is Penury, who, with her sister-mate

Disorder, soon brings down the loftiest state,

And makes it desolate.

This truth the sage of Sparta told,

Aristodemus old,—

“Wealth makes the man.” On him that’s poor,

Proud worth looks down, and honor shuts the door.