NOTHING at all in the paper to-day! Only a murder somewhere or other; A girl who has put her child away, Not being a wife as well as a mother; Or a drunken husband beating a wife, With the neighbors lying awake to listen, Scarce aware he has taken a life, Till in at the window the dawn rays glisten. But that is all in the regular way -- There's nothing at all in the paper to-day. Nothing at all in the paper to-day! To be sure, there's a woman died of starvation, Fell down in the street, as so many may In this very prosperous Christian nation; Or two young girls, with some inward grief Maddened, have plunged in the inky waters; Or father has learnt that his son's a thief, Or mother been robbed of one of her daughters. Things that occur in their regular way -- There's nothing at all in the paper to-day. There's nothing at all in the paper to-day, Unless you care about things in the city -- How great rich rogues for their crimes must pay (Though all gentility cries out, "Pity!") Like the meanest shop-boy that robs a till. There's a case to-day, if I'm not forgetting, The lad only "borrowed" -- as such lads will -- To pay some money he lost in betting; But there's nothing in this that's out of the way -- There's nothing at all in the paper to-day. Nothing at all in the paper to-day But the births and bankruptcies, deaths and marriages, But life's events in the old survey, With Virtue begging, and Vice in carriages; And kindly hearts under ermine gowns, And wicked breasts under hodden gray; For goodness belongs not only to clowns, And o'er others than lords does sin bear sway. But what do I read? "Drowned! wrecked!" Did I say There was nothing at all in the paper to-day? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WORLD AS WILL AND REPRESENTATION' by HAYDEN CARRUTH MATE (1) by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EUGENIA TODD by EDGAR LEE MASTERS HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 9 by EZRA POUND CAPUT MORTUUM by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |