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...HE RULETH NOT THROUGH HE RAIGNE OVER REALMES by THOMAS WYATT SIGISMONDA AND GUISCARDO by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO AFTER APPLE PICKING by ROBERT FROST THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER by FRANCIS SCOTT KEY THE SPIRIT OF NATURE by RICHARD REALF AUTUMN: A DIRGE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY |