Another Curiosity of Literature
The Knocker aches with motion; day by day
The door groans on with hard and desperate knocks;
Duns—gentle, fervent, furious—come in flocks;
And still they press, and still they go away,
And call again, and saunter off, or stay;
Duns of all shapes—the goose, the wolf, the fox—
All punctual by their several parish-clocks:
And still the answer is the same—no pay!
Alas! that house one penny doth not hold,—
One farthing were not found, on hands and knees,
No, not a doit, in all its crevices;
Yet sits the Inmate, cramp’d, and lean, and cold,
Writing a pamphlet;—and its title? “Gold!
Or, England’s Debt paid off with perfect ease.”