Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Ghost-Bereft (1901). IV. Outside the Toy Shop

Jane Barlow (1857–1917)

BESIDE the door they stand, anear the pane

Tricked with toy-wares. It is a dapple-grey

In smooth round wafers dight, and lifts alway

One prancing foot from grass-green board upta’en.

An urchin he, oft met down alley and lane,

Half lost in his wide old rags; agrin to-day,

Because he still with fearful joy dares lay

A stroking finger on that furry mane.

He tastes his perilous pleasure like a bird

Of quick small feet and wary eye, that comes

To peck strewn fragments, flown at breath scarce heard.

You smile among the hedgerows. In the slums

You think: When flits this child-glee lightly stirred,

Shall manhood’s craving miss even these poor crumbs?