Classic Poem

Pavement slippery, people sneezing;
Lords in ermine, beggars freezing;
Titled gluttons dainties carving,
Genius in a garret starving!

Lofty mansions, warm and spacious;
Courtiers cringing and voracious;
Misers scarce the wretched heeding;
Gallant soldiers fighting, bleeding.

Wives who laugh at passive spouses;
Theatres and meeting-houses;
Balls, where simpering misses languish;
Hospitals, and groans of anguish.

Arts and sciences bewailing;
Commerce drooping, credit failing;
Placemen mocking subjects loyal;
Separations, weddings royal.

Authors who can't earn a dinner;
Many a subtle rogue a winner;
Fugitives for shelter seeking;
Misers hoarding, tradesmen breaking.

Taste and talents quite deserted;
All the laws of truth perverted;
Arrogance o'er merit soaring—
Merit silently deploring.

Ladies gambling night and morning;
Fools the works of genius scorning;
Ancient dames for girls mistaken,
Youthful damsels quite forsaken.

Some in luxury, delighting
More in talking than in fighting;
Lovers old, and beaux decrepid,
Lordlings empty and insipid.

Poets, painters and musicians;
Lawyers, doctors, politicians;
Pamphlets, newspapers and odes,
Seeking fame by different roads.

Gallant souls with empty purses;
Generals only fit for nurses;
Schoolboys smit with martial spirit
Taking place of martial merit.

Honest men who can't get places,
Knaves who show unblushing faces—
Ruin hastened, peace retarded,
Candour spurned and art rewarded.