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Home  »  A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895  »  From “Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg.” II. Her Moral

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas Hood 1799–1845

From “Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg.” II. Her Moral

Hood-Tho

GOLD! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Bright and yellow, hard and cold,

Molten, graven, hammer’d, and roll’d;

Heavy to get, and light to hold;

Hoarded, barter’d, bought, and sold,

Stolen, borrow’d, squander’d, doled:

Spurn’d by the young, but hugg’d by the old

To the very verge of the churchyard mould;

Price of many a crime untold;

Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!

Good or bad a thousand-fold!

How widely its agencies vary:

To save—to ruin—to curse—to bless—

As even its minted coins express,

Now stamp’d with the image of Good Queen Bess,

And now of a bloody Mary.