We Live in a Rickety House
We Live in a Rickety House
Original Text
Alexander McLachlan, Poems and Songs (Toronto: Hunter, Rose, 1874): 34. Internet Archive.
1We live in a rickety house,
2 In a dirty dismal street,
3Where the naked hide from day,
4 And thieves and drunkards meet.
5And pious folks, with their tracts,
6 When our dens they enter in,
7They point to our shirtless backs,
8 As the fruits of beer and gin.
9And they quote us texts, to prove
10 That our hearts are hard as stone;
11And they feed us with the fact,
12 That the fault is all our own.
13And the parson comes and prays--
14 He's very concerned 'bout our souls;
15But he never asks, in the coldest days,
16 How we may be off for coals.
17It will be long ere the poor
18 Will learn their grog to shun;
19While it's raiment, food and fire,
20 And religion all in one.
21I wonder some pious folks
22 Can look us straight in the face,
23For our ignorance and crime
24 Are the Church's shame and disgrace.
25We live in a rickety house,
26 In a dirty dismal street,
27Where the naked hide from day.
28 And thieves and drunkards meet.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form