***GOLD***

Gold
(from "miss kilmansegg and her precious leg")


Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold,
Molten, graven, hammer'd, and roll'd;
Heavy to get, and light to hold;
Hoarded, barter'd, bought and sold,
Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled:
Spurn'd by the young, but hugg'd by the old
To the very verge of the churchyard mould;
Price of many a crime untold;
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Good or bad a thousand-fold!
How widely its agencies vary -
To save - to ruin - to curse - to bless -
As even its minted coins express,
Now stamped with the image of Good Queen Bess,
And now of a Bloody Mary!




Thomas Hood . 1798-1844