Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE POOR MAN, by GEORGE LUNT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE POOR MAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The world without is cold, dearest
Last Line: Who lives for self alone.
Subject(s): God; Poverty


THE world without is cold, dearest,
Nor heeds what we endure,
The hearts that dance in lighted halls
Care little for the poor;
Some transient thought, some passing sigh,
Their well-bred pity knows,
But tears, that dim the sparkling eye,
Are shed for unfelt woes.

The proud one wraps his fur, dearest,
Around his muffled form,
And scarce the poor man's scanty garb
Can shield him from the storm;
They meet upon God's common earth,
Beneath the same blue sky,
As ice to ice in Polar seas,
Each brother's kindred eye.

By Cairo's lordly towers, dearest,
Or on the desert waste,
The Arab spreads his food and asks
The passer-by to taste;
But what are spires that point to heaven,
And every formal prayer,
If hearts are dead to human love,
Nor own a brother's care?

Oh, many a chariot rolls, dearest,
Along the rattling stones,
Whose wheels with every echo tell
Some wretched creature's groans;
The poor man must be honest,
Who loses or who wins,—
No gilded veil, to cheat the crowd,
Conceals the poor man's sins.

But envy haunts me not, dearest,
To tread the halls of pride,
The poor man's heart has many a thought
Worth all the world beside;
And oft he shares his little all,
Or shields the houseless one,
While lords of useless thousands sleep,
No daily mercy done.

We walk in shadows here, dearest,
Nor pierce through all the show,
But heaven still flings its blue above,
And spreads its green below;
And demon forms may scowling stand,
For gilded vice to wait,
While angel hosts encamp around
The beggar in the gate.

And though my life is toil, dearest,
For thine and baby's fare,
There's One, who hears the ravens cry,
To make us still His care;
Of this be sure, he most is poor,
Were boundless wealth his own,
And unforgiven of earth or heaven,
Who lives for self alone.





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