Page:Two Poems - Browning and Browning (1854).djvu/11

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XXIII.

While those others, lean and small,

Scurf and mildew of the city,
Spot our streets, convict us all
Till we take them into pity?

XXIV.

"Is it our fault?" you reply,

"When, throughout civilization,
Every nation's empery
Is asserted by starvation?

XXV.

All these mouths we cannot feed,

And we cannot clothe these bodies."
Well, if man's so hard indeed,
Let them learn at least what God is!

XXVI.

Little outcasts from life's fold,

The grave's hope they may be joined in,
By Christ's covenant consoled
For our social contract's grinding.