He suggested a type of the poor and the needy—
A sketch at full length of the shabby-genteel.
There were holes in his gloves—his umbrella was cotton—
His coat was a faded invisible green;
And in prominent bulbs, through the trowsers he'd got on,
The marks of his knees, or patellae, were seen.
But it seem'd above all inexpressibly painful
To notice the efforts he made to conceal—
By a tone partly nervous and partly disdainful—
The fact of his looking so shabby-genteel.