ONCE I beheld thee, a lithe mountain maid, Embrowned by wholesome toils in lusty air; Whose clear blood, nurtured by strong, primitive cheer, Through Amazonian veins, flowed unafraid. Broad-breasted, pearly-teethed, thy pure breath strayed, Sweet as deep-uddered kine's curled in the rare Bright spaces of thy lofty atmosphere, O'er some rude cottage in a fir-grown glade. Now, of each brave ideal virtue stripped, O Poverty! I behold thee as thou art, A ruthless hag, the image of woeful dearth Or brute despair, gnawing its own starved heart. Thou ravening wretch! fierce-eyed and monster-lipped, Why scourge forevermore God's beauteteous earth? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A VALEDICTION: OF THE BOOKE by JOHN DONNE IN THE SHADOWS: MY EPITAPH by DAVID GRAY (1838-1861) BALLADE OF BLUE CHINA by ANDREW LANG THE CREMATION OF SAM MCGEE by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE THE PRINCESS: SONG by ALFRED TENNYSON A SONNET. ON CYNTHIA SICK by PHILIP AYRES THE SHEPHERD O' THE FARM by WILLIAM BARNES |