I DECKED with gems my person fat, they glittered with exceeding splendor; I had some rubies on my hat, an emerald on each suspender. Oh, men could see me from afar, and straightway they grew sore and jealous; I twinkled like the little star of which the ancient hymn-books tell us. I wore a sapphire on my shirt, my cummerbund was diamond-fretted; the weight of all my jewels hurt, and long beneath the load I sweated. And ever as I toiled along, for dining halls or ball rooms heading, I saw the tired and sad-faced throng that finds this life such dreary sledding. I saw men push their jaded feet in search of work that always dodged them, and women turned into the street from squalid rooms that lately lodged them. I saw them by the souphouse ranked, poor, hopeless skates, all trodden under; and as I looked my diamonds clanked, and made a noise like distant thunder. I saw a stiff fished from a brook, some worn-out wife or wayward sister; and as I took a startled look, my diamonds seemed to scorch and blister. I've cut out all the precious stones; one can't enjoy that form of granite, while hearing all the wails and groans that rise from this old hard luck planet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT A SOLEMN MUSIC by JOHN MILTON UNCLE ANANIAS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON IN A GARDEN by PAULINE B. BARRINGTON MONODY TO THE SOUND OF ZITHERS by KAY BOYLE BALLAD OF A GRAY CLOAK by ELIZABETH BUELL A SONG OF GOUNOD'S by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON PICTURES OF THE SOUTHWEST: HEAT by ELIZABETH KING COWGILL |