The Tramps Soliloquy

Had I an envied name and purse of gold, My friends were more than all my wants twice told; Reduced to rags and born of title small, Vast tho' my wants I have no friends at all. Anxiety consumes away my years And failure melts my manhood down in tears. My down-cast eyes some guilt seem to disclose And I'm shut in a lazar house of woes. I am not what I was, my drooping form Partakes of what is loathsome in the worm. Pittied hut not respected I may be, I shun myself, and e'en the dogs shun me. The rich to chide the poor may adulate The few torn pleasures of a scanty state; But cold experience tells her story plain, Want breeds with bitterness and brings forth pain.