Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PETER GREY, by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PETER GREY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Honest little peter grey
Last Line: To find him sitting snug at the top.
Subject(s): Work; Success


HONEST little Peter Grey
Keeps at work the livelong day,
For his mother is as poor as a mouse;
Now running up and down
Doing errands in the town,
And now doing chores about the house.

The boys along the street
Often call him Hungry Pete,
Because that his face is so pale;
And ask, by way of jest,
If his ragged coat and vest
And his old-fashioned hat are for sale.

But little Peter Grey
Never any shape nor way
Doth evil for evil return;
He is finer than his clothes,
And no matter where he goes
There is some one the fact to discern.

You might think a sneer, mayhap,
Just a feather in your cap,
If you saw him being pushed to the wall;
But my proudly-foolish friend,
You might find out in the end
You had sneered at your betters, after all.

He is climbing up his way
On life's ladder day by day;
And you who, to laugh at him, stop
On the lower rounds, will wake,
If I do not much mistake,
To find him sitting snug at the top.





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