 | Duganne's Poetical Works |  |
326
“PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.”
I.
THERE'S a man in England's UpperTen, with dainty feed for supper—
Mister Martin Farquhar Tupper
Is his name:
And he 's writ full many a poem
For the poorer class, to show 'em,
That if poverty should blow 'em,
They themselves are most to blame—
That advice is what we owe 'em,
And equality 's a shame.
II.
It is well for Mister TupperThus to preach from Fortune's upper
Deck, that those within the scupper
Should'nt pine for fish or fowl:
That to grunt is very silly,
And that life's a daffy-dilly,
And the Poor Man—will-he, nill-he—
Must be silent as an owl—
And if things grow well or ill, he
Never should presume to growl.
327
III.
That's good talk for Mister Tupper,Who is fast in Fortune's crupper;
While he drinks a stirrup-cup, or
Two—it's famous talk for him:
But, if he'd but leave his dinner,
And become some pauper sinner—
Some poor weaver, or some spinner,
Working, sick in heart and limb,—
He'd see something of the inner
Life, that now to him is dim!
| Duganne's Poetical Works | |