A sharply satirical attack on unevenly applied 19th-century laws to enforce religious observance still bites today
Rich and Poor, or Saint and SinnerThe poor man’s sins are glaring;
In the face of ghostly warning
He is caught in the fact
Of an overt act —
Buying greens on Sunday morning.The rich man’s sins are hidden
A sharply satirical attack on unevenly applied 19th-century laws to enforce religious observance still bites today
From an almost whimsical beginning, these verses on wishing to overcome mortality grow lyrical and deeply moving
Words of stern moral advice to a besotted young man are delivered with a brisk and even sunny touch
The radical young poet’s backhanded tribute to the older writer is a stern judgment on his lapsed political idealism
An atheist’s complaint at the scant room made by the church for his personal commemoration of the dead
The worlds of the haves and the have-nots clash, in a toxic friendship between two women brought together by a school reunion
