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, 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, Of sharers in a common human fate. She turns from that cold succour, which attends The unknown little from the unknowing great, And points us to a better time than ours. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BENEDICTION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MY HAPPINESS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPRING WIND IN LONDON by KATHERINE MANSFIELD CONSECRATED GROUND; READ AT THE NEW YORK CITY HALL by EDWIN MARKHAM THE MAN WITH THE HOE OUTWITTED by EDWIN MARKHAM BALLADE OF DEAD FRIENDS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |