Editor’s NoteCritical ApparatusEditor’s NoteCritical ApparatusITHE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR

The class of Beggars, to which the Old Man here described belongs, will probably soon be extinct. It consisted of poor, and, mostly, old and infirm persons, who confined themselves to a stated round in their neighbourhood, and had certain fixed days, on which, at different houses, they regularly received alms, sometimes in money, but mostly in provisions.

[Composed 1797.—Published 1800.]

• 1I saw an aged Beggar in my walk;
• 2And he was seated, by the highway side,
• 3On a low structure of rude masonry
• Critical Apparatus4Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they
• 5Who lead their horses down the steep rough road
• 6May thence remount at ease. The aged Man
• 7Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone
• 8That overlays the pile; and, from a bag
• 9All white with flour, the dole of village dames,
• 10He drew his scraps and fragments, one by one;
• 11And scanned them with a fixed and serious look
• 12Of idle computation. In the sun,
• 13Upon the second step of that small pile,
• 14Surrounded by those wild unpeopled hills,
• Critical Apparatus15He sat, and ate his food in solitude:
• 16And ever, scattered from his palsied hand,
• 17That, still attempting to prevent the waste,
• 18Was baffled still, the crumbs in little showers
• 19Fell on the ground; and the small mountain birds,
• 20Not venturing yet to peck their destined meal,
• 21Approached within the length of half his staff.

• 22  Him from my childhood have I known; and then
• 23He was so old, he seems not older now;
• 24He travels on, a solitary Man,
• 25So helpless in appearance, that for him
• pg 235Critical Apparatus26The sauntering Horseman throws not with a slack
• 27And careless hand his alms upon the ground,
• Critical Apparatus28But stops,—that he may safely lodge the coin
• 29Within the old Man's hat; nor quits him so,
• 30But still, when he has given his horse the rein,
• Critical Apparatus31Watches the aged Beggar with a look
• 32Sidelong, and half-reverted. She who tends
• 33The toll-gate, when in summer at her door
• 34She turns her wheel, if on the road she sees
• 35The aged Beggar coming, quits her work,
• 36And lifts the latch for him that he may pass.
• 37The post-boy, when his rattling wheels o'ertake
• 38The aged Beggar in the woody lane,
• Critical Apparatus39Shouts to him from behind; and, if thus warned
• 40The old man does not change his course, the boy
• 41Turns with less noisy wheels to the roadside,
• 42And passes gently by, without a curse
• 43Upon his lips or anger at his heart.

• 44  He travels on, a solitary Man;
• 45His age has no companion. On the ground
• 46His eyes are turned, and, as he moves along,
• 47They move along the ground; and, evermore,
• Editor’s NoteCritical Apparatus48Instead of common and habitual sight
• 49Of fields with rural works, of hill and dale,
• 50And the blue sky, one little span of earth
• Critical Apparatus51Is all his prospect. Thus, from day to day.
• 52Bow-bent, his eyes for ever on the ground,
• 53He plies his weary journey; seeing still,
• Critical Apparatus54And seldom knowing that he sees, some straw,
• 55Some scattered leaf, or marks which, in one track,
• 56The nails of cart or chariot-wheel have left
• pg 23657Impressed on the white road,—in the same line,
• 58At distance still the same. Poor Traveller!
• Critical Apparatus59His staff trails with him; scarcely do his feet
• 60Disturb the summer dust; he is so still
• Critical Apparatus61In look and motion, that the cottage curs,
• Critical Apparatus62Ere he has passed the door, will turn away,
• 63Weary of barking at him. Boys and girls,
• 64The vacant and the busy, maids and youths,
• 65The urchins newly breeched—all pass him by:
• 66Him even the slow-paced waggon leaves behind.

• Critical Apparatus67  But deem not this Man useless—Statesmen! ye
• 68Who are so restless in your wisdom, ye
• 69Who have a broom still ready in your hands
• 70To rid the world of nuisances; ye proud,
• 71Heart-swoln, while in your pride ye contemplate
• Critical Apparatus72Your talents, power, or wisdom, deem him not
• 73A burthen of the earth! 'Tis Nature's law
• 74That none, the meanest of created things,
• 75Of forms created the most vile and brute,
• 76The dullest or most noxious, should exist
• 77Divorced from good—a spirit and pulse of good,
• 78A life and soul, to every mode of being
• Critical Apparatus79Inseparably linked. Then be assured
• Critical Apparatus80That least of all can aught—that ever owned
• 81The heaven-regarding eye and front sublime
• 82Which man is born to—sink, howe'er depressed,
• 83So low as to be scorned without a sin;
• pg 23784Without offence to God cast out of view;
• 85Like the dry remnant of a garden-flower
• 86Whose seeds are shed, or as an implement
• 87Worn out and worthless. While from door to door,
• Critical Apparatus88This old Man creeps, the villagers in him
• 89Behold a record which together binds
• 90Past deeds and offices of charity,
• 91Else unremembered, and so keeps alive
• 92The kindly mood in hearts which lapse of years,
• 93And that half-wisdom half-experience gives,
• 94Make slow to feel, and by sure steps resign
• 95To selfishness and cold oblivious cares.
• 96Among the farms and solitary huts,
• 97Hamlets and thinly-scattered villages,
• 98Where'er the aged Beggar takes his rounds,
• 99The mild necessity of use compels
• 100To acts of love; and habit does the work
• 101Of reason; yet prepares that after-joy
• 102Which reason cherishes. And thus the soul,
• 103By that sweet taste of pleasure unpursued,
• Critical Apparatus104Doth find herself insensibly disposed
• 105To virtue and true goodness. Some there are,
• 106By their good works exalted, lofty minds,
• Critical Apparatus107And meditative, authors of delight
• 108And happiness, which to the end of time
• Critical Apparatus109Will live, and spread, and kindle: even such minds
• 110In childhood, from this solitary Being,
• Critical Apparatus111Or from like wanderer, haply have received
• 112(A thing more precious far than all that books
• pg 238113Or the solicitudes of love can do!)
• 114That first mild touch of sympathy and thought,
• 115In which they found their kindred with a world
• 116Where want and sorrow were. The easy man
• 117Who sits at his own door,—and, like the pear
• 118That overhangs his head from the green wall,
• 119Feeds in the sunshine; the robust and young,
• 120The prosperous and unthinking, they who live
• 121Sheltered, and flourish in a little grove
• 122Of their own kindred;—all behold in him
• 123A silent monitor, which on their minds
• 124Must needs impress a transitory thought
• 125Of self-congratulation, to the heart
• 126Of each recalling his peculiar boons,
• Editor’s Note127His charters and exemptions; and, perchance,
• Critical Apparatus128Though he to no one give the fortitude
• 129And circumspection needful to preserve
• 130His present blessings, and to husband up
• 131The respite of the season, he, at least,
• 132And 'tis no vulgar service, makes them felt.

• Critical Apparatus133  Yet further. ———Many, I believe, there are
• 134Who live a life of virtuous decency,
• 135Men who can hear the Decalogue and feel
• 136No self-reproach; who of the moral law
• 137Established in the land where they abide
• 138Are strict observers; and not negligent
• Critical Apparatus139In acts of love to those with whom they dwell,
• 140Their kindred, and the children of their blood.
• 141Praise be to such, and to their slumbers peace!
• 142—But of the poor man ask, the abject poor;
• Critical Apparatus143Go, and demand of him, if there be here
• 144In this cold abstinence from evil deeds,
• 145And these inevitable charities,
• 146Wherewith to satisfy the human soul?
• pg 239147No—man is dear to man; the poorest poor
• 148Long for some moments in a weary life
• 149When they can know and feel that they have been,
• 150Themselves, the fathers and the dealers-out
• 151Of some small blessings; have been kind to such
• 152As needed kindness, for this single cause,
• 153That we have all of us one human heart.
• 154—Such pleasure is to one kind Being known,
• 155My neighbour, when with punctual care, each week,
• Critical Apparatus156Duly as Friday comes, though pressed herself
• Critical Apparatus157By her own wants, she from her store of meal
• 158Takes one unsparing handful for the scrip
• 159Of this old Mendicant, and, from her door
• 160Returning with exhilarated heart,
• Critical Apparatus161Sits by her fire, and builds her hope in heaven.

• 162  Then let him pass, a blessing on his head!
• 163And while in that vast solitude to which
• Critical Apparatus164The tide of things has borne him, he appears
• 165To breathe and five but for himself alone,
• 166Unblamed, uninjured, let him bear about
• 167The good which the benignant law of Heaven
• 168Has hung around him: and, while fife is his,
• 169Still let him prompt the unlettered villagers
• 170To tender offices and pensive thoughts.
• 171—Then let him pass, a blessing on his head!
• 172And, long as he can wander, let him breathe
• 173The freshness of the valleys; let his blood
• Critical Apparatus174Struggle with frosty air and winter snows;
• 175And let the chartered wind that sweeps the heath
• 176Beat his grey locks against his withered face.
• 177Reverence the hope whose vital anxiousness
• 178Gives the last human interest to his heart.
• 179May never house, misnamed of industry,
• 180Make him a captive!—for that pent-up din,
• pg 240181Those life-consuming sounds that clog the air,
• 182Be his the natural silence of old age!
• 183Let him be free of mountain solitudes;
• 184And have around him, whether heard or not,
• 185The pleasant melody of woodland birds.
• Critical Apparatus186Few are his pleasures: if his eyes have now
• 187Been doomed so long to settle upon earth
• 188That not without some effort they behold
• 189The countenance of the horizontal sun,
• 190Rising or setting, let the light at least
• 191Find a free entrance to their languid orbs,
• 192And let him, where and when he will, sit down
• Critical Apparatus193Beneath the trees, or on a grassy bank
• 194Of highway side, and with the little birds
• 195Share his chance-gathered meal; and, finally,
• 196As in the eye of Nature he has lived,
• 197So in the eye of Nature let him die!