The Beggar’s Petition
A destitute and friendless farmer, turned from the tradesman’s entrance, tries his luck at the front door.
1769
King George III 1760-1820
Old man begging, by Michiel Sweerts (1618–1664).
By Michiel Sweerts (1618-1664), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Introduction
This poem was composed by the Revd Mr Thomas Moss, minister of Brierley Hill and Trentham in Staffordshire, and included in a collection of verses that he published anonymously in 1769. Admired for its pathos, the poem became a standard for children to memorise, in the hope of sowing the seeds of charitable feelings at an early age; consequently, it was also much parodied.
PITY the sorrows of a poor old man.
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door.
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span —
Oh! give relief, and Heav’n will bless your store!
These tatter’d clothes my poverty bespeak;
These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen’d years;
And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek
Has been the channel to a flood of tears.
Yon house erected on the rising ground
With tempting aspects drew me from my road;
For plenty there a residence has found,
And grandeur a magnificent abode.
Hard is the fate of the infirm and poor;
Here, as I crav’d a morsel of their bread,
A pamper’d menial drove me from the door,
To seek a shelter in an humbler shed.
Oh! take me to your hospitable dome!
Keen blows the wind, and piercing is the cold:
Short is my passage to the friendly tomb,
For I am poor and miserably old.
