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 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
Sickness
With sickness and with famine they contend,No help can reach them till another year;
The dreary Winter seems to have no end,
And oft the savage foe awakes their fear;
From want, exposure, and attendant ills,
Full eighty of their number sink and die;
Grave after grave Death unrelenting fills,
And side by side the strong and feeble lie!
How dear is sympathy in our distress,
As did the Puritans in trouble prove;
A kind physician comes to heal and bless,
The messenger of Plymouth's early love;
Such help as sufferers can to sufferers send,
The Plymouth pilgrims to their brethren lend.
Poem No. 842; c. 1878–80
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |