Squalor spreads its hideous length through the carts and the asses' feet, squalor coils and reopens and creeps under barrow and heap of refuse and the broken sherds of the market-place -- it lengthens and coils and uncoils and draws back and recoils through the crooked streets. Squalor blights and makes hideous our lives -- it has smothered the beat of our songs, and our hearts are spread out, flowers -- opened but to receive the wheel of the cart, the hoof of the ox, to be trod of the sheep. Squalor spreads its hideous length through the carts and the asses' feet -- squalor has entered and taken our songs and we haggle and cheat, praise fabrics worn threadbare, ring false coin for silver, offer refuse for meat. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MARTYRS OF THE MAINE by RUPERT HUGHES RED TREASURE by CAROLYN AUSTIN THE GEATE A-VALLEN TO by WILLIAM BARNES BLIND FOLK by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE REASONABLE MELANCHOLY by JOSEPH BEAUMONT APARTMENT PARTNERS by FRANCIS MARTIN BOTELHO THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: FATALITY by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |