Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NOBODY'S CHILD, by PHOEBE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Only a newsboy, under the light Last Line: "if one of these ""little ones"" be lost!" Subject(s): Orphans; Kindness | ||||||||
ONLY a newsboy, under the light Of the lamp-post plying his trade in vain: Men are too busy to stop to-night, Hurrying home through the sleet and rain. Never since dark a paper sold; Where shall he sleep, or how be fed? He thinks as he shivers there in the cold, While happy children are safe abed. Is it strange if he turns about With angry words, then comes to blows, When his little neighbor, just sold out, Tossing his pennies, past him goes? "Stop!" -- some one looks at him, sweet and mild, And the voice that speaks is a tender one: "You should not strike such a little child, And you should not use such words, my son!" Is it his anger or his fears That have hushed his voice and stopped his arm? "Don't tremble," these are the words he hears; "Do you think that I would do you harm?" "It isn't that," and the hand drops down; "I wouldn't care for kicks and blows; But nobody ever called me son, Because I'm nobody's child, I s'pose." O men! as ye careless pass along, Remember the love that has cared for you; And blush for the awful shame and wrong Of a world where such a thing could be true! Think what the child at your knee had been If thus on life's lonely billows tossed; And who shall bear the weight of the sin, If one of these "little ones" be lost! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR THE SAKE OF STRANGERS by DORIANNE LAUX A CONSIDERABLE SPECK by ROBERT FROST BUT I DO NOT NEED KINDNESS by GREGORY NUNZIO CORSO HER DILEMMA; IN CHURCH by THOMAS HARDY A LEGEND OF THE NORTHLAND by PHOEBE CARY |
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