Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Great WritersBurns
Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849)S
The poet of the poor.
His books were rivers, woods, and skies,
The meadow and the moor;
His teachers were the torn heart’s wail,
The tyrant, and the slave,
The street, the factory, the jail,
The palace,—and the grave!
Sin met thy brother everywhere!
And is thy brother blamed?
From passion, danger, doubt, and care
He no exemption claimed.
The meanest thing, earth’s feeblest worm,
He feared to scorn or hate;
But, honoring in a peasant’s form
The equal of the great,
He blessed the steward, whose wealth makes
The poor man’s little more;
Yet loathed the haughty wretch that takes
From plundered labor’s store.
A hand to do, a head to plan,
A heart to feel and dare,—
Tell man’s worst foes, here lies the man
Who drew them as they are.