ONCE I beheld thee, a lithe mountain maid, Embrowned by wholesome toils in lusty air; Whose clear blood, nurtured by strong, primitive cheer, Through Amazonian veins, flowed unafraid. Broad-breasted, pearly-teethed, thy pure breath strayed, Sweet as deep-uddered kine's curled in the rare Bright spaces of thy lofty atmosphere, O'er some rude cottage in a fir-grown glade. Now, of each brave ideal virtue stripped, O Poverty! I behold thee as thou art, A ruthless hag, the image of woeful dearth Or brute despair, gnawing its own starved heart. Thou ravening wretch! fierce-eyed and monster-lipped, Why scourge forevermore God's beauteteous earth? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARY DONNELLY by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE BRIDGE: 7. THE TUNNEL by HAROLD HART CRANE HAMATREYA by RALPH WALDO EMERSON A PRAISE OF HIS LOVE by HENRY HOWARD THE GREEK AT CONSTANTINOPLE by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES |