"Guiltless Poverty No Disgrace" (1854)

For the Lansingburgh Democrat.GUILTLESS POVERTY NO DISGRACE.Ponder it well O ye, who blessed with store,Regard with score the abject, suffering poor;In tattered garb what though thy brother be,No shame to him pertains, but rather thee;Though Providence to thee accordeth wealth,Ease, friendship, honors, independence, health;Deem not thy merit these for thee hath won,Beggar and poor are equal—son with son;Ye have no higher claim—no nobler birth,Both sprung from dust, and both return to earth.In costly garments or in large estate,Lies not the wealth which makes the poor man great,Less affluent he whose guarded coffers deep.Laden with gold, enclose a glittering heap,And less to be desired the monarch’s sway,Mounted on kingly throne, and, day by day,Bowed down to, flattered, courted, sought, alway—Than honest poverty, of with the rest,He harboreth not contentment in his breast;Evil is not to indigence confined,Joint fellowship it hath with all mankind:A very pauper, if to virtue true,Can face a vicious king, and shame him too.Kings may be great and rule with sapient nod—“An honest man’s the noblest work of God!”Shame on the craven fool who, lost to sense,Scorns the clean palm of honest indigence.TIMONLansingburgh Democrat. August 10, 1854: 2 col 3.For the Lansingburgh Democrat.MR. EDITOR:—Timon’s poverty is no disgrace,It’s anything but common-place;He almost caught the poet’s fire,Took down his harp and tuned his lyre,And just when plumed for fancy’s flight,On the eve of something bright,Lo, and behold! though in his pride,Could but recall the donkey tribe;The jackass stamped, and loudly brayed,And thought the lion’s voice he made;There hard beside and full of flee,His master stood, amused to seeThe cunning trick of royal jack,The donkey’s voice, but lion’s back.And who could but be thus amused,To see the means the donkey used;He tried the poet’s flight to soar,Just as the jackass tried to roar,And why he failed the first to do,The beast eclipsed the poet’s view.But tell us, ye witty donkey’s clown,About the printing for the town,Is all your bills most just and true!Then why not have it still to do?But come, ye wise one, write again,We’ll try your lines more close to scan;Perhaps we’ve misconceived your plan;We’d never wrong a brother man,For sure he is a noble work,To prove it, just read Timon’s flirt.THE TARTAR.Lansingburgh Democrat. August 17, 1854: 2The Albany Knick says that some wag has come a good drive over Lamb, of the Lansingburgh Democrat. A very well written piece of poetry, entitled “Guiltless Poverty no disgrace,” was sent to him which he published. After his paper was printed, it was discovered that it was an acrostic, which read as follows; “Printed by Bill Lamb, the Jackass.”Essex County Republican. August 19, 1854: 2