<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">In a Slum</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I <span class="smallcaps">never</span> heard him speak a kindly word,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">My tears were answered with a savage oath,</p><p class="line">He drank what we could very ill afford,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He was a bully and a drunkard both.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He broke my body as he broke my soul,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I shivered when I heard his stumbling feet;</p><p class="line">At times the very household "sticks" he stole,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To pawn and pay for women in the street.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I stitched and labored for his children's bread,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Fourpence a shirt the sweated wage I earned,</p><p class="line">Save when the doctor forced me to my bed,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where thrice a mother's travail I had learned.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The day he left me for the barrack square,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He swore we women were no earthly use</p><p class="line">For anything but filling men with care,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His parting words were words of foul abuse.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And now they tell me of a hero's death,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">How one to twelve he held the Huns at bay,</p><p class="line">And won the Cross, yet with his passing breath</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He bade the chaplain "take his face away."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Inside the pubs the neighbors speak his praise,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The man who brought the world about our slum,</p><p class="line">Or by the open door they stand and gaze,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And wonder why his slattern wife is dumb.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The preacher dwells the ways of God upon,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Surpassing man's design and woman's wit;</p><p class="line">Oh God, I can't be sorry he is gone,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But going I am glad he did his bit.</p></div><p class="byline">-- A. Stodart Walker.</p></body></html> · Great War