Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.
Slum Children(From Songs of Joy)
Davies, William Henry
William H. Davies
(An English poet whose Autobiography of a Super-tramp was given to the world with an introduction by Bernard Shaw)Y
Stones, sticks and rags your daily flowers;
Like fishes’ lips, a bluey white,
Such lips, poor mites, are yours.
Whose lives are passed in human crowds—
When in the water I can see
Heaven with a flock of clouds.
Where garbage chokes the sink and drain—
Now when the hawthorn smells so sweet,
Wet with the summer rain.
Ye are but small new islands seen,
To disappear before your lives
Can grow and be made green.