Life, 1896-01-23 · page 7 of 20
Life — January 23, 1896 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Ballad of Poverty" This page from *Life* magazine presents a poem by Geraldine Meyrick titled "A Ballad of Poverty." The accompanying illustration shows a sparse interior where poverty personified as a woman has taken up residence in someone's home. The poem's narrative describes Poverty as an unwelcome guest who arrived "long since" and overstayed indefinitely, despite promising to leave within a year. The speaker laments how this condition has isolated them—old friends now avoid visiting due to the "stony glare of Poverty" at the door, and acquaintances blame the speaker's "pride" for their misfortune. The work uses allegorical language to explore 19th-century attitudes toward poverty: as both a personal failing and a social stigma that causes shame and estrangement from community.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE came into my house long since, And bade me let her stay. “I'm honest Poverty,” she said, **Whom none should turn away.” “1 will but stay a year or so, While you are young and stron, I answered, careless: ‘ Bide a whil I shall not keep you long.” O, many years have passed since then, Yet still that wretched crone Doth dwell with me, nor do I dare To call my soul my own. Now half the friends I used to love Will visit me no more ; The stony glare of Poverty Affrights them from my door. And when I venture to complain, Or mildly remonstrate, “Tis wholesome discipline,” she says: “Your pride has been too great.” O, woful woman! Dost thou mean To dwell with me for aye? Old Age demands admittance now, And will not go away. He, too, must be my guest e’er long; Old Age and Poverty ! A precious pair to rule my hearth; Haste, Death, and set me free ! Geraldine Meyrick, comicbooks.com