Classic Poem

Pale
Thro' the thick vagueness of the vaporous night,
From the dark alley, with a clouded light,
Two rheumy, melancholy lampions flare.
They are the eyes of the Police.
In there,
Down the dark archway, thro' the greasy door,
Passionately pushing past the three or four
Complacent constables that cluster'd round
A costermonger, in the gutter found
Incapably, but combatively, drunk,
The woman hurried. Thro' the doorway slunk
A peaky pinch'd-up child with frighten'd face,
Important witness in some murder case
About to come before the magistrate
To-morrow. At a dingy table sat
The slim Inspector, spectacled, severe,
Rapidly writing.
In a sort of fear
Of seeing it again, she shut her eyes
And flung it down there. With sedate surprise
The man look'd up.
" Because I do not know
The owner, sir. " ... she said. " A while ago
I found it. And there's money in it ... much,
Oh, so much money, sir! "
A hungry touch
Of the defeated Tempter made her wince
To see him count it. Such a short while since
She, too, had done the same.

" Your name? address? "
She gave them. Easy, from the last, to guess
Their wretchedness who dwelt in such a place!
The shrewd and practised eye perused her face
Contented, not surprised; for they that see
Crime oftenest, oftenest, too, see honesty
Where most of us would seldom look for it,
Or find it with surprise ... in rags, to wit.
" Honest and poor. Deserves a large reward.
No doubt there'll be one. "

" Ah, the times are hard,
So hard, God help us all! and, sir, indeed
We are so poor. Two little mouths to feed.
If one could only get some work to do! "

" Ah ... married? out of work? and children? two?
Mem. Let the owner know, if found. Good night. "

But still she stood there. He had turn'd to write.
She stood, and eyed him with a dreary eye,
And did not move. He look'd up presently.
" Not gone, yet? eh? what more? "
" And, sir " ... she said,
" There's by the Work-House wall a woman ... dead.
There was no room within, sir, I suppose.
There are so many of them. Heaven knows
'Tis hard for such as we to understand
How such things happen in a Christian land. "

Her face twitch'd, and her cough grew fierce again,
As she pass'd out into the night and rain.