Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PURCHASE, by CHARLES WILLIAMS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PURCHASE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Small and red and goggling with anxious eyes
Last Line: —slinking and licking my fingers and ready to cry.
Subject(s): Money; Poverty; Retail Trade; Stores; Shops; Shopkeepers


SMALL and red and goggling with anxious eyes
At the full shop windows, the folk, and the carts in the street,
Clutching a stolen penny in one fat hand,
And torn with doubt between this or that other sweet
For look and size and taste I see myself stand.

'No one shall have my penny,' I hear myself say,
And watch the greedy, unpleasant child slip in
To the central bazaar, where all may ask and have:
They sell everything there, and he for his pennyworth sin
Asks with hot breath and panting voice: O brave!

'God shall not have my penny, this clever God
They talk of,' I feel myself thinking; 'he may be there,
Behind the chocolate boxes, or just outside;
I have never seen God, I don't know God, and I don't care;'
The penny is gone, and he runs away to hide.

Is it I that watch? is it I that am choking with haste
Over the moment? surely 'tis I that walk
Serene in the world, and Love comes down the street
With all my princely friends, and we stand and talk.
Is it I that hatefully hide and gobble my sweet?

Gracious the world appears; a small fat boy
Goes carefully past,—what have I to do with him?
'Now you know where the pennies are you can get one each day,'
I feel him thinking; my love's bright face grows dim,
And the talk of my friends is farther and farther away.

And the great Republic closes to one dull lane,
One ugly door, and towards the door I go,
Thinking how nice but how short the taste was, and why
The man in the shop was so stern, and if they know,
—Slinking and licking my fingers and ready to cry.





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