A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.
Some labouring men, whose work lay somewhere there,
Pass’d opposite; she touch’d her girl, who hied
Across, and begg’d and came back satisfied.
The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.
Thought I: Above her state this spirit towers;
She will not ask of aliens, but of friends,
Of sharers in a common human fate.
She turns from that cold succour, which attends
The unknown little from the unknowing great,
And points us to a better time than ours.
Matthew Arnold, “West London”
(To me, the scene meant that the poor know better than to waste time asking the rich to give up a penny: They’d best spend the same amount of time begging from other poor people. It’s not an explanation of the comic, just something I was reminded of by it.)
Confused me at first, too. When Skippy’s friend’s mother took a “nice” person with her to beg, half her “clients” gave their money to the nice person. If she’d taken someone not so nice, she would have got more of the money.
CougarAllen about 6 years ago
I don’t understand this one at all. Anybody?
Kip W about 6 years ago
Crouch’d on the pavement close by Belgrave Square
A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied;
A babe was in her arms, and at her side
A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.
Some labouring men, whose work lay somewhere there,
Pass’d opposite; she touch’d her girl, who hied
Across, and begg’d and came back satisfied.
The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.
Thought I: Above her state this spirit towers;
She will not ask of aliens, but of friends,
Of sharers in a common human fate.
She turns from that cold succour, which attends
The unknown little from the unknowing great,
And points us to a better time than ours.
Matthew Arnold, “West London”
(To me, the scene meant that the poor know better than to waste time asking the rich to give up a penny: They’d best spend the same amount of time begging from other poor people. It’s not an explanation of the comic, just something I was reminded of by it.)
agmcauley Premium Member about 6 years ago
Confused me at first, too. When Skippy’s friend’s mother took a “nice” person with her to beg, half her “clients” gave their money to the nice person. If she’d taken someone not so nice, she would have got more of the money.