The Blind Beggar  (1892)

38 The Blind Beggar (1892)

Arthur Symons

He stands, a patient figure, where the crowd

Heaves to and fro; a sound is in his ears

As of a vexed sea roaring, and he hears

In darkness, as a dead man in his shroud.

5

Patient he stands, with age and sorrow bowed,

And holds a piteous hat of ancient years;

And in his face and gesture there appears

The desperate humbleness of poor men proud.

What thoughts are his, as, with the inward sight,

10

He sees the glad unheeding Fair go by?

Is the long darkness darker for that light,

And sorrow nearer when such mirth is nigh?

Patient, alone, he stands from morn to night,

Pleading in his reproachful misery.

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