Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti
Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849)A Poet’s Epitaph
S
The Poet of the Poor.
His books were rivers, woods, and skies,
The meadow, and the moor;
His teachers were the torn hearts’ wail,
The tyrant and the slave,
The street, the factory, the jail,
The palace—and the grave!
The meanest thing, earth’s feeblest worm,
He feared to scorn or hate;
And honoured in a peasant’s form
The equal of the great.
But if he loved the rich who make
The poor man’s little more,
Ill could he praise the rich who take
From plundered labour’s store.
A hand to do, a head to plan,
A heart to feel and dare—
Tell man’s worst foes, here lies the man
Who drew them as they are.