Here is an example:
“Garçon!”
In black and white I serve their bellies’ need,
Paid with a frown, a curse, a penny in the franc.
Will they thank
Me with a smile, when, playing on my reed,
I bid them hear, and from my cathedra
Their silly loves and lusts, dull thoughts and empty creed,
In black and white I show them as they are?
The verse in itself has few merits, but it afforded him a sense of luxury to produce such lines. He felt as a king might feel who lay hidden in a hovel, conscious of greatness in little places.