Peter Bell the Third by Percy Bysshe Shelley
page 17 of 42 (40%)
page 17 of 42 (40%)
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18.
The rich are damned, beyond all cure, To taunt, and starve, and trample on The weak and wretched; and the poor Damn their broken hearts to endure _235 Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan. 19. Sometimes the poor are damned indeed To take,--not means for being blessed,-- But Cobbett's snuff, revenge; that weed From which the worms that it doth feed _240 Squeeze less than they before possessed. 20. And some few, like we know who, Damned--but God alone knows why-- To believe their minds are given To make this ugly Hell a Heaven; _245 In which faith they live and die. 21. Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken, Each man be he sound or no Must indifferently sicken; As when day begins to thicken, _250 None knows a pigeon from a crow,-- 22. So good and bad, sane and mad, |
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