STANZAS TO A RESPECTABLE CONVICT.
Go to penal servitude,
Faithless friend, rogue, scoundrel, thief;
Go, and o’er thy future brood,
With unpitied shame and grief.
Now, thou base, dishonest knave,
Cheat of men who trusted thee,
Ten years long thou art a slave,
Smooth Respectability!
Pick thy oakum, wheel thy load,
Puff and blow, and sign, and groan,-
Thou whom consistence ne’er could goad,
Pain of sense whit now bemoan;
Rascal, would that all thy kind
Could thy sore affliction view,
Warning swindlers, base of mind,
What a villain may come to.
Toiling in a convict’s dress,
Lashed to work, if labour tire,
Fear, the sight of thy distress,
In their bosoms might inspire;
As a Guy that frights the crows,
Fellow-blackguards thou would’st scare,-
All thy use it, pangs and woes,
For example’s sake, to bear.
Back to A HUNDRED TO ONE. <<< — >>> Next to THE BLACK QUAD AND HIS WHITE BROTHER.
