PAVEMENT slippery, people sneezing, Lords in ermine, beggars freezing; Titled gluttons dainties carving, Genius in a garret starving. Lofty mansions, warm and spacious; Courtiers cringing and voracious; Misers scarce the wretched heeding; Gallant soldiers fighting, bleeding. Wives who laugh at passive spouses; Theatres, and meeting-houses; Balls, where simpering misses languish; Hospitals, and groans of anguish. Arts and sciences bewailing; Commerce drooping, credit failing; Placemen mocking subjects loyal; Separations, weddings royal. Authors who can't earn a dinner; Many a subtle rogue a winner; Fugitives for shelter seeking; Misers hoarding, tradesmen breaking. Taste and talents quite deserted; All the laws of truth perverted; Arrogance o'er merit soaring; Merit silently deploring. Ladies gambling night and morning; Fools the works of genius scorning; Ancient dames for girls mistaken, Youthful damsels quite forsaken. Some in luxury delighting; More in talking than in fighting; Lovers old, and beaux decrepid; Lordlings empty and insipid. Poets, painters, and musicians; Lawyers, doctors, politicians: Pamphlets, newspapers, and odes, Seeking fame by different roads. Gallant souls with empty purses, Generals only fit for nurses; School-boys, smit with martial spirit, Taking place of veteran merit. Honest men who can't get places, Knaves who show unblushing faces; Ruin hastened, peace retarded; Candour spurned, and art rewarded. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOMERIC HEXAMETER [DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED] by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE SUPPLICATION by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR. THE BLACK RIDERS: 22 by STEPHEN CRANE THE BEAUTIFUL by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ON A LUTE FOUND IN A SARCOPHAGUS by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE SONNET: 25 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DICK, A MAGGOT by JONATHAN SWIFT FARM-YARD SONG by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE AT [OR AFTER] CORUNNA by CHARLES WOLFE |