To her companion’s unimpassion’d stare, 770
And my wild wonder—Seat of virtue! chaste,
As lovely once! O! how wert thou disgraced!
Upon that breast, by sordid rags defiled,
Lay the wan features of a famish’d child;—
That sin-born babe in utter misery laid,
Too feebly wretched even to cry for aid;
The ragged sheeting, o’er her person drawn,
Served for the dress that hunger placed in pawn.
“At the bed’s feet the man reclined his frame;