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.
Précis
Thomas Moss’s poem from 1769 pictured a destitute farmer calling on a grand house to beg. He had gone humbly to the rear, but been turned away by a haughty servant; now he had come to the front because, he said, the owner of such a splendid house would surely have something to spare for a man so old and unfortunate. (61 / 60 words)
Thomas Moss’s poem from 1769 pictured a destitute farmer calling on a grand house to beg. He had gone humbly to the rear, but been turned away by a haughty servant; now he had come to the front because, he said, the owner of such a splendid house would surely have something to spare for a man so old and unfortunate.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, despite, if, may, or, ought, unless, until.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
