Patrick Kavanagh

To A Bashful Beggar

Take what I give
And be glad to live
Any beggar-way. Who knows
What meanness made a rose
Or a magnate's brazen nose?

Or a good song,
Or a profound sentence? - the tongue
May have licked a dog's plate.
Self-respect is a high gate
To a low state.

Take what comes - 
The fallen crumbs
Are bread too.
Truth delves in dustbins. O you
Be beggar-true.
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