Page:Two Poems - Browning and Browning (1854).djvu/16

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III.

"Poor, who had plenty once,

When gifts fell thick as rain:
But they give us nought, for the nonce,
And how should we give again?"

IV.

Then the beggar, "See your sins!

Of old, unless I err,
Ye had brothers for inmates, twins,
Date and Dabitur."

V.

"While Date was in good case

Dabitur flourished too:
For Dabitur's lenten face,
No wonder if Date rue."

VI.

"Would ye retrieve the one?

Try and make plump the other!
When Date's penance is done,
Dabitur joins his brother."