Some, stolid-featured, mocked content.
But there was labour’s stain on all,
The travailed look, the ashy skin.
Quoth he: “What may this folk befall,
With crime without and want within?”
The gleaming town shone more and more,
As fell the night’s mist-laden gloom,
Till heaven’s face seemed dotted o’er
With feeble sparks, where wheel and loom
Went on their ceaseless whirl and swing,