Henry Lawson

Poverty

I HATE this grinding poverty—
    To toil, and pinch, and borrow,
And be for ever haunted by
    The spectre of to-morrow.
It breaks the strong heart of a man,
    It crushes out his spirit—
Do what he will, do what he can,
    However high his merit!

I hate the praise that Want has got
    From preacher and from poet,
The cant of those who know it not
    To blind the men who know it.
The greatest curse since man had birth,
    An everlasting terror:
The cause of half the crime on earth,
    The cause of half the error.