Explore "Breaking-Point" by Thomas Burke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Many heavy blows has this patient person's back received, / These many years. / He has lost friends and money; / He has lost his own country; / His well-framed enterprises have gone awry. / And his heart has gone hungry these many years for love.
All these things he has suffered without murmur. / One thing alone has driven him to utter piercing cries, / And make gestures expressive of volcano in eruption: / And that is the bootmender across the road / Who sings hymns to himself in the evening.
For that is true that the sage has spoken: / That it is the smell of gin-and-onions about the secretary / Which drives his master, who long has suffered gin-and-cloves, / To the breaking-point of inexpressible exasperation.