Foliage: Various Poems

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> </SPAN></p> <br/> <h2> WHO I KNOW </h2> <p>I do not know his grace the Duke,<br/> Outside whose gilded gate there died<br/> Of want a feeble, poor old man,<br/> With but his shadow at his side.<br/> <br/> I do not know his Lady fair,<br/> Who in a bath of milk doth lie;<br/> More milk than could feed fifty babes,<br/> That for the want of it must die.<br/> <br/> But well I know the mother poor,<br/> Three pounds of flesh wrapped in her shawl:<br/> A puny babe that, stripped at home,<br/> Looks like a rabbit skinned, so small.<br/> <br/> And well I know the homeless waif,<br/> Fed by the poorest of the poor;<br/> Since I have seen that child alone,<br/> Crying against a bolted door.<br/></p> <p><br/><br/></p> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />