It is not nice to see Quite such little children Shiver with cold. It is not nice to see Quite such little children Bought and sold. It is not nice to hear the raucous Voices of the civic caucus Talk of popular education While with hideous emulation They scramble and spit For the golden bit. It is not nice to see the faces Of eminent persons in their places, Plotting after their sort; It is not nice their women to see Staring at the frippery By rascals in shop-windows hung! All these, and other things, among -- And worse is in the list -- Might really make a humble poet -- If he weren't afraid to show it And wasn't earning his bread By making rhymes on the dead For the fattest of the living, And hadn't a slight misgiving And a suspicion dim That 'twould be the end of him -- Into -- so bad is the list -- An absolute Nihilist! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRANES OF IBYCUS by EMMA LAZARUS THE SLAVE TRADE: VIEW FROM THE MIDDLE PASSAGE by CLARENCE MAJOR WAITER IN A CALIFORNIA VIETNAMESE RESTURANT by CLARENCE MAJOR THE MAN WITH THE WOODEN LEG by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |