The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
James Russell Lowell (18191891)Without and Within
M
Looks through the side-light of the door;
I hear him with his brethren swear,
As I could do—but only more.
He envies me my brilliant lot,
Breathes on his aching fist in vain,
And dooms me to a place more hot.
A silken wonder by my side,
Bare arms, bare shoulders, and a row
Of flounces, for the door too wide.
’Neath its white-gloved and jeweled load;
And wishes me some dreadful harm,
Hearing the merry corks explode.
Of hunting still the same old coon,
And envy him, outside the door,
The golden quiet of the moon.
As the bright smile he sees me win,
Nor the host’s oldest wine so old
As our poor gabble, sour and thin.
By which his freezing feet he warms,
And drag my lady’s chains and dance
The galley-slave of dreary forms.
And I his quiet—past a doubt
’Twould still be one man bored within
And just another bored without.