Classic Poem

From folks insipid and unfeeling
Came one who needed no annealing,
Love childless kept him from congealing.

He lived beside his money-lending,
Learning his concubine and vending
All day, he read at night's descending.

His favorite work was Say on Barter,
He was Republican, no martyr,
And varicosely spurned a garter.

A Benthamite, old ills he flouted
Till came the chance and then he doubted;
He hated slavery till 'twas routed.

He would the ballot give the many
Until too many, then not any,
And in the pound stuck at the penny.

But o'er this money groat's existence
The purple Greece shone in from distance
And gave his vagaries consistence.

Like old Mortality a tintster,
Among the marbles in the Minster
They put away this withered spinster.