from That Barrikins: Pictures From Mayhew II, London 1850
John Seed
XXXIV
1
it's not all men
as has or
I shouldn't have been
waiting here on
you but
you has your
choice I
tell you
sleep there on that
shake-down or
turn out &
be damned
2
The windows
there sir are
not to let the
light in but
to keep the
cold out
3
Of course
they don't ask any couple
to show their marriage lines
no more than they do
any lord & lady
or one that ain't a lady
if she's with a lord
at any fash'nable hotel
at Brighton I've
done tidy well on
slums about ladies in a
Brighton hotel
just by the Steyne
werry tidy
4
Whatever that's
bad & wicked
that any one can
fancy could be
done in such places
among boys & girls
that's never been taught
or won't be taught better
is done
& night after night
5
A rackety place sir
one of the showfuls
a dicky one a
free-and-easy you can
get a pint of beer
& a punch of the head
all for 2d.
as for sleeping
on a Saturday night there O
no we
never mention it
6
Why in course sir
if you is in a country town
or village where there's only
one lodging-house &
that a bad one an
old hand can always
suit his-self in London you
must get half-drunk or your
money for your bed is
wasted there's so much rest
owing to you
after a hard day &
bugs & bad air'll
prevent its being paid
if you don't lay in some
stock of beer or liquor of some sort
to sleep on it's a duty
you owes yourself but
if you haven't the browns why
then in course you
can't pay it
7
When a man's lost caste he
may as well
go the whole hog
bristles & all
& a low lodging-house
is the entire pig
8
Brighton is a town where
there is a great many
furnished cribs
let to needys
that are
molled up
XXXV
Why sir I myself have
slept in the top room
of a house not far from
Drury-lane & you
could study the stars
if you were so minded
through the holes
a fine summer's night
& the openings in the roof
were an advantage they
admitted air I
never went there again
you may judge what thoughts
went through a man's mind
a man who had
seen prosperous days
as he lay in a place like that
without being able to sleep
watching the sky
-----------------------------
John Seed's first Mayhew volume, Pictures From Mayhew, and his New and Collected Poems, are both published by Shearsman
