Beggar to Beggar Cried
'Time to put off the world and go somewhere And find my health again in the sea air,' Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, 'And make my soul before my pate is bare.- 'And get a comfortable wife and house To rid me of the devil in my shoes,' Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, 'And the worse devil that is between my thighs.' And though I'd marry with a comely lass, She need not be too comely - let it pass,' Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, 'But there's a devil in a looking-glass.' 'Nor should she be too rich, because the rich Are driven by wealth as beggars by the itch,' Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, 'And cannot have a humorous happy speech.' 'And there I'll grow respected at my ease, And hear amid the garden's nightly peace.' Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck, 'The wind-blown clamour of the barnacle-geese.'
Beggar to Beggar Cried - meaning Summary
Desires of a Restless Beggar
The poem records a beggar’s repeated, feverish soliloquy about escaping poverty through travel, marriage, and respectability. His wishes—health by the sea, a ‘‘comfortable wife and house,’’ moderation in beauty and wealth—are both practical and contradictory, revealing anxieties about desire, self-image, and social aspiration. The recurring line "Beggar to beggar cried, being frenzy-struck" frames these fantasies as compulsive wish-making that undercuts their seriousness and highlights the gap between longing and reality.
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