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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ROOT OF EVIL by WALT MASON

First Line: WHEN I HAVE GOT A GOODLY WAD, I SAY THAT
Last Line: BEHIND THEM'S STREWN WITH MORALS GONE TO SEED.
Subject(s): EVIL; MORALITY; ETHICS;

WHEN I have got a goodly wad, I say that wealth's an empty gawd, a cheap,
deluding snare; with fluent tongue and aspect wise, I stand around and moralize,

and roast the millionaire. I look with sorrow and disdain on those who sweat and

strive and strain to get another plunk; I tell them money is but dross, a sordid

dream, a total loss, a worthless lot of junk. But when I've had some small
reverse, that makes my roll look sick, or worse, on lucre I am bent; I hustle
till I melt my fat, and you may see me break a slat, to nail another cent.
Forgotten all the platitudes that I dispensed in lofty moods, in times when I
was flush; forgotten all the moral saws, and every text that ever was, as I
pursue the cush. And when I've made a roll again, I sternly lecture weary men,
and chide them for their greed, for striving for the picayune, and say the trail

behind them's strewn with morals gone to seed.



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