The City's Ways

 

Ye say the City stunts the child,

And robs its bone of half its growth;

And makes less rich the mother's milk,

Which is her baby's blood, forsooth.

 

Ye say the City drained its blood-

But hath it done no more than that?

What made the child to stone the dog?

What made him pinch and scald the cat?

 

True, it makes shoulders narrower,

And maketh men as dwarves to be:

But what hath made them worse than that,

Demons of hell for cruelty?

 

Wouldst know the City's cruel ways?

The homeless dog and cat do know;

And bony nags that cannot last

For long the pace they're whipt to go.

 

Or ask the ox, strange from green fields,

And from the farmer's kindly ken;

Now chased to death with curse and blow,

By wild things that do seem like men

 

I gave no thought how cruel' twas,

Until I saw in kindly keep

The grazing ox, the ploughing horse,

So stout and strong, and fearless sheep.

 

A good law, for both man and beast:

Let all flesh food-for a thousand pities-

Enter to us a lifeless meat,

And goad no live thing through our cities.

 

Why think of them, though goaded, cursed,

Of horses, oxen, sheep, in sooth;

The City's far more hard on men-

Some starve, some slave, and some do both.