Explore "West London" by Matthew Arnold on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Crouch'd on the pavement, close by Belgrave Square / A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied; / A babe was in her arms, and at her side / A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.
Some labouring men, whose work lay somewhere there, / Pass'd opposite; she touch'd her girl, who hied / Across, and begg'd, and came back satisfied.
The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.
Thought I: Above her state this spirit towers; / She will not ask of aliens, but of friends, / Of sharers in a common human fate.
She turns from that cold succour, which attends / The unknown little from the unknowing great, / And points us to a better time than ours.