'Twas August, and the fierce sun
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,
And the pale weaver, through his windows
In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited.
I met a preacher there I knew, and said:"Ill and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene?" -"Bravely!" said he; "for I of late have
Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread."O human soul! as long as thou canst
Set up a mark of everlasting light,
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow,
To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam -Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night!
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home.
