From The Complaints of Poverty by Nicholas James

Most of us shy away from discussing how much we make. Money, wealth, and the genuine value of charity are hot topics that you’ll probably want to avoid during a family dinner, though few of us fail to admire the merits of the “self-made” 1%. However, the complex stigmas we associate with wealth make poverty one of the most profound, interesting, and emotionally charged themes in poems like ‘The Complaints of Poverty.’

‘The Complaints of Poverty’ by Nicholas James is a long poem published in the poet’s 1742 book, Poems on Several Occasions. James is an elusive fellow. Little is known about him other than that he was an 18th-century English poet. 

However, James’ poems offer an unusual perspective on 18th-century England. He tackles unique subjects like poverty, the traditions of Cornish wrestling, the execution of a man named Netten, and atheism. 

While ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ is a long poem, those who study it generally only read a small selection, which is what this in-depth analysis will cover. This section sums up the rest of the poem very well, offering an imagery-heavy, emotional glimpse into the hardships of living in poverty.

Selection From The Complaints of Poverty
Nicholas James

MAY poverty, without offence, approachThe splendid equipage, the gilded coach?May it with freedom all its wants make known?And will not wealth and pow'r assume a frown?Chimeras all! What can the wretched fear,Hapless confined to a detested here?No lower can we sink, nor higher rise,Unless you deign to aid our miseries.We feel its sad effects in early youth,The mind a stranger to instructive truth;Hence vagrant lads pursue the mumping trade,Or justice' limits impiously invade;Hence silly girls, seduced, their virtue mourn,And spend an age in infamy and scorn.But should our tender years such fortune findThat humble education forms the mind,If reason in our artless bosom sways,And if we tread direct in virtue's ways,Incessant labour waits our future days.At morning's early dawn it bids us rise,Nor ends our toil till light forsakes the skies;Ill-clothed, we winter's freezing cold sustain,And summer's parching heat augments our pain;While the harsh master and penurious dameWith cruel hand contract the human frame.Married, the wretch but multiplies his ills,And others' mis'ry, sympathising, feels;Still with each infant wretch his woes increase,And happy if the wife permits him peace;Too oft the theme of want her tongue employs,Too oft she bans her inauspicious choice,While, prudently, he shuns the wordy war,And hears, retired, her thunder from afar.When winter's rage upon the cottage falls,And the wind rushes through the gaping walls,When ninepence must their daily wants supply,With hunger pinched and cold, the children cry;The gathered sticks but little warmth afford,And half-supplied the platter meets the board.Returned at night, if wholesome viands fail,He from the pipe extracts a smoky meal:And when, to gather strength and still his woes,He seeks his last redress in soft repose,The tattered blanket, erst the fleas' retreat,Denies his shiv'ring limbs sufficient heat;Teased with the squalling babes' nocturnal cries,He restless on the dusty pillow lies.But when pale sickness wounds with direful blow,Words but imperfectly his mis'ry show;Unskilful how to treat the fierce disease,Well-meaning ignorance curtails our days.In a dark room and miserable bedTogether lie the living and the dead.Oh shocking scene! Fate sweeps whole tribes away,And frees the parish of th' reluctant pay!Where's the physician now, whom heav'n ordainsFate to arrest, and check corroding pains?Or he's detained by those of high degree,Or won't prescribe without a golden fee.But should old age bring on its rev'rend hoar,When strength decayed admits his toil no more,He begs itinerant, with halting pace,And, mournful, tells his melancholy case,With meagre cheek and formidable beard,A tattered dress of various rags prepared.Base covetise, who wants the soul to give,Directs the road where richer neighbours live;And pride, unmindful of its parent dust,Scares with the dungeon and the whipping-post.

Summary

From ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ by Nicholas James is a direct address to the wealthy, describing the wretched and pitiful living conditions of the poor in 18th-century England. 

The poet-speaker of ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ opens this selection by questioning if a poor person may ever approach a rich person without receiving a prideful frown. According to the speaker, these poor people only beg for help from the wealthy because they have nothing left to lose. 

These poor people are already at rock bottom, but they cannot rise in the social ranks without help from the wealthy. 

The poet-speaker next describes the course of life for a poor person. He explains that children who are poor don’t have any way to gain wealth or status. The rest of the world is unreachable to them, so they become criminals, prostitute themselves, or beg for food and money. Otherwise, those who hold fast to their virtues end up toiling all night for the rest of their lives. 

Those who marry and have children are even more miserable. The women cannot eat enough to feed their babies, have little for their children, and end up resenting their husbands and kids.  

These people cannot escape their sadness. The summers increase their bodily pain, and the winters leave them cold and hungry. They cannot even escape in their sleep, as their flea-infested, ratty blankets barely cover them, and the children cry all night from hunger and discomfort. 

The poor, when ill, cannot afford doctors either and die in their chilly beds at night alongside their families. However, those who may live to an older age have no better fate. Since their bodies are worn and weak, they have to turn to begging just to eat. Yet, the rich do not receive these people. Instead, they threaten the poor beggars with arrest and violence.

Archaic Language

This selection from ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ by Nicholas James is full of archaic, or old-fashioned, words. 

While James wrote this poem in the 1700s, the word choice likely would have confused quite a few of his contemporary readers.

The poet carefully chose lofty, academic vocabulary to elevate the subject and make it clear that this poem is for wealthy, elite people with a decent education. This idea wasn’t all that uncommon during the neoclassical era, as poetry was a sort of elitist art form at the time. It was almost always out of the reach and interest of the poor.

Some of the archaic and unfamiliar words in this poem are: 

• Equipage: a horse and carriage, usually accompanied by servants to drive and maintain the stagecoach 
• Chimeras: a thing a person hopes for but can never achieve. Based on the concept of the mythological Chimera, a fantastical beast that, while entertaining to hear about, does not exist. 
• Hapless: unlucky, unfortunate
• Mumping trade: begging for food or services from tradespeople. Police officers often used this term to describe people who illicitly begged for a living.
• Penurious: miserly, or both penny-pinching and harsh, bitterly ungenerous
• Inauspicious: unlucky, unfavorable
• Viands: food
• Smoky meal: tobacco smoke, in this case, used as an appetite suppressant
• Redress: reparation, something that makes everything else all right, a repayment
• Erst: formerly, at a previous time
• Squalling: crying loudly and without end
• Direful: terrible, wretched
• Frees the parish of th’ reluctant pay: frees the local parish from having to give alms or charity to the poor 
• Corroding pains: pains that deteriorate or weaken
• Rev’rend hoar: The reverend hoar, or a frosty white beard. This term uses figurative language to illustrate that the poor old man is in the winter of his life or nearing death.
• Itinerant: wandering
• Base covetise: lowly desire, the detestable covetousness and wealth-hoarding of the rich

Poetic Devices

‘The Complaints of Poverty’ is one extended apostrophe, or direct address, to the listener. In choosing pretentious language to depict the conditions of the poor, James makes this poem only accessible to the educated ear. This limits his audience to only the most well-educated, elite, and wealthy people in 18th-century England. 

Nicholas James uses imagery to graphically illustrate poor peoples’ lives in ‘The Complaints of Poverty.’ For example, the line “The splendid equipage, the gilded coach” creates a marvelous image of a large, gleaming stagecoach fit for a king. Meanwhile, the poor man lives in a “small cottage” where “the wind rushes through the gaping walls.” 

The poet also uses many conjunctions, such as “and” and “but,” to stack clauses on top of each other, forming very long compound sentences. This repetition emphasizes how each stage in a poor person’s life builds upon the last, trapping people in the cycle of poverty.

Another device to note is the poet’s use of pathetic fallacy, as in “winter’s rage.” This depiction of natural elements as sentient beings allows the poet to create an atmosphere that constantly constrains and presses the poor man.

Form and Structure

‘The Complaints of Poverty’ is a blank verse poem. Each line is written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of aabbccddeeff, creating pairs of heroic couplets. 

The blank verse form likely recalls the tradition of didactic poetry, which teaches a lesson. However, by also incorporating heroic couplets, the poem also becomes a narrative one. So, from this form, it is clear that Nicholas James is trying to teach the listener about the lives of poor people and the ways that the wealthy spurn or reject them through a brief tale. 

However, more formally, this poem is an excellent example of a complaint poem, which is a type of lament. This type of poem usually uses emotional appeals, rhetorical devices such as direct address, and logic to make a formal complaint.

The pentameter lines also give this poem a more rigid structure, which keeps things nice, prim, proper, and respectable. Using this meter, the poet elevates the topic and makes it clear that he is a well-educated poet who the listener can trust. While he may be trying to upend the rigid social structure of England, he knows well enough not to upend the structure of his poem. Otherwise, the listener might think that the poet is an irreverent anarchist.

Detailed Analysis

Lines 1-6

MAY poverty, without offence, approach
The splendid equipage, the gilded coach?
May it with freedom all its wants make known?
And will not wealth and pow’r assume a frown?
Chimeras all! What can the wretched fear,
Hapless confined to a detested here?

Lines one through six of ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ contain four rhetorical questions spoken in an apostrophe to the listener. 

These expostulations question whether poverty can ever approach the “gilded coach” of wealth, using abstraction and metaphor to ask if a poor person can ever approach a wealthy one as a beggar without offending them.

However, the poet-speaker quickly answers his own question with another, asking whether a wealthy person will always look down on, or “frown” at, a poor person. 

The poet declares that no, the wealthy person will always be offended. However, the poor will still approach because they have nothing left to fear. They are already so unfortunate that they have no other option than to beg. 

Lines 7-14

No lower can we sink, nor higher rise,
Unless you deign to aid our miseries.
We feel its sad effects in early youth,
The mind a stranger to instructive truth;
Hence vagrant lads pursue the mumping trade,
Or justice’ limits impiously invade;
Hence silly girls, seduced, their virtue mourn,
And spend an age in infamy and scorn.

Interestingly, in line 7, the poet-speaker gives away an important detail about himself. He speaks for a “we,” indicating that he is also poor. Thus, in this poem, he speaks for the poor as a representative. 

The poet states that the poor, who are at the bottom of the pecking order, can’t sink any lower, but they also have no way to gain wealth or happiness without the help of the wealthy. This system, the poet argues, traps poor people in a cycle of poverty from their earliest childhoods to their deaths. 

The poet begins tracing the lives of the poor with the uneducated children whose minds are strangers “to instructive truth.” Without this education, he states that the children have no morals or virtue, begging for food and money, breaking the law by robbery, or prostituting themselves, in the case of “silly girls.”

Lines 15-25

But should our tender years such fortune find
That humble education forms the mind,
If reason in our artless bosom sways,
And if we tread direct in virtue’s ways,
Incessant labour waits our future days.
At morning’s early dawn it bids us rise,
Nor ends our toil till light forsakes the skies;
Ill-clothed, we winter’s freezing cold sustain,
And summer’s parching heat augments our pain;
While the harsh master and penurious dame
With cruel hand contract the human frame.

The poet of ‘The Complaints of Poverty,’ despite his claim that most poor people are uneducated, notes on the rare cases in which the poor have “such fortune” as to get an education. 

James notes that this education sways “reason in our artless bosom,” giving them logic and virtue but no trades, skills, or arts to exercise that reason. Without any other outlet for their virtuous behavior, these people become hard workers who only have “incessant labor” to look forward to. These hardworking poor people slave away all day and night with just an hour or two to sleep. 

While these people have little rest and work from the morning’s light until the next morning, there is also no rest for them as the seasons change. The winter keeps them frigid, as they are “ill-clothed,” but in the summer, they are hot, dehydrated, and only have more pain. 

Despite this insufferable, relentless discomfort, the poor still have to bend to the wishes of the wealthy to survive.

These wealthy people who rule over the poor, like a king and queen, are the “harsh master” and the “penurious” or miserly “dame” who are rude and stingy with their money. However, the poor must bend to their will to get any money, as the master and madame “contract the human frame” with their “cruel hand,” oppressing the poor.  

Here, the poor have no real free will as they toil endlessly, which ultimately is all the more unfortunate because these men are educated and have “reason” and “virtue.”

Lines 26-33

Married, the wretch but multiplies his ills,
And others’ mis’ry, sympathising, feels;
Still with each infant wretch his woes increase,
And happy if the wife permits him peace;
Too oft the theme of want her tongue employs,
Too oft she bans her inauspicious choice,
While, prudently, he shuns the wordy war,
And hears, retired, her thunder from afar.

In lines 26-33 of ‘The Complaints of Poverty,’ the poet explains the burden marriage and family have on a poor person. He states that if a poor man marries, he “multiplies” his misfortune. However, he also burdens other people by marrying, as they all feel sorry for him, “sympathising” with his misery. 

While more children just mean more crying in the house and another mouth to feed, a wife, according to the poet, will likely often complain about not having the things she needs for herself and the children. She will curse her “inauspicious” or unlucky choice to marry the man. 

Despite the alliteration-rich “wordy war” of her arguments, the man “prudently” or wisely walks away from her as she still “thunders,” yelling in the other room. 

In this section of the poem, family is just a burden for the poor man. Children and a wife just mean more work, and he will never have the resources to satisfy them since he is stuck in poverty. 

Lines 34-47

When winter’s rage upon the cottage falls,
And the wind rushes through the gaping walls,
When ninepence must their daily wants supply,
With hunger pinched and cold, the children cry;
The gathered sticks but little warmth afford,
And half-supplied the platter meets the board.
Returned at night, if wholesome viands fail,
He from the pipe extracts a smoky meal:
And when, to gather strength and still his woes,
He seeks his last redress in soft repose,
The tattered blanket, erst the fleas’ retreat,
Denies his shiv’ring limbs sufficient heat;
Teased with the squalling babes’ nocturnal cries,
He restless on the dusty pillow lies.

Lines 34 through 37 are rich in imagery as the poor man sits in his home, presumably after a long day and night of work. This section creates conflict between hunger and the man’s environment, which is cold, loud, harsh, and unsatisfying.

The pathetic fallacy, “When winter’s rage,” depicts the season as a gusty, frosty force that beats against the cottage walls, which are “gaping” as if their mouths are wide open. Fittingly, this conflict between the angry winter and the “gaping walls” is similar to how hunger, “pinched and cold,” causes the children to cry and wail. 

The sticks this family gathers can hardly make a difference in the cold air, and the food that “meets the board” is only “half-supplied,” or each serving has been cut in half to ensure everyone gets something. 

However, the poet also explains that if the man cannot bring home food at night, he will simply smoke his pipe instead of eating. This “smoky meal” blows through the man, just as the harsh winter winds blow through the “gaping” cottage walls, connecting each line in this stanza with the hunger and dark, cold, harsh environment that man is in. 

His cold bed and tattered blanket are no better. Here, the cold winter frosts have even caused the summertime infestation of fleas to die. The man, with his “shivering limbs,” hungers for heat, as do the “squalling” children, who fill the winter winds with “cries” all night. 

Unsatisfied, hungry, cold, and surrounded by the audible misery of his family, he cannot even rest. This man has no escape from wretchedness and suffering, as he cannot even dream. 

Lines 48-59

But when pale sickness wounds with direful blow,
Words but imperfectly his mis’ry show;
Unskilful how to treat the fierce disease,
Well-meaning ignorance curtails our days.
In a dark room and miserable bed
Together lie the living and the dead.
Oh shocking scene! Fate sweeps whole tribes away,
And frees the parish of th’ reluctant pay!
Where’s the physician now, whom heav’n ordains
Fate to arrest, and check corroding pains?
Or he’s detained by those of high degree,
Or won’t prescribe without a golden fee.

Lines 48 through 59 of this selection from ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ focus on sickness and death. Here, the poet admits that his words are not enough to capture the swarm of misery that occurs when a poor man falls ill. However, that doesn’t stop him from trying. 

The poet explains that his people, the poor, don’t know how to treat disease, so they die in “well-meaning ignorance” of medicine. 

The lines “In a dark room and miserable bed /Together lie the living and the dead” have an extreme emotional appeal that also brings together the opposing forces that the poor man must live with during his life. When a man dies, he is at home, on his cold or flea-infested bed, just laying there as the living lay near him. 

Thus, the poor man always lives with his fate and death. This death takes the forms of hunger, smoke, the cold, the wind, crying, and the angry demands of his wife for more resources. These things, and thus, death, and he can never look away from them. 

To add even more emphasis to these artful lines, the poet proclaims in an apostrophe, “Oh shocking scene!” 

The fate of death does not free the man, though. It only frees “the parish of th’ reluctant pay” or frees the local church from having to give the man welfare checks.  

The poet next asks another rhetorical question, inquiring, “Where’s the physician now, whom heav’n ordains / Fate to arrest, and check corroding pains?” Here, the poet questions religious ideas such as the equality of men and goodwill. Although heaven “ordains” the doctor to stop fate (death) from happening, the doctors only serve those of “high degree” or charge too much for their services. 

Thus, in a roundabout way, the poor man does not have access to heaven. He answers not to god but is instead a disciple of death and fate, which together rule his existence. 

Lines 60-69

But should old age bring on its rev’rend hoar,
When strength decayed admits his toil no more,
He begs itinerant, with halting pace,
And, mournful, tells his melancholy case,
With meagre cheek and formidable beard,
A tattered dress of various rags prepared.
Base covetise, who wants the soul to give,
Directs the road where richer neighbours live;
And pride, unmindful of its parent dust,
Scares with the dungeon and the whipping-post

In lines 60 through 69 of this selection, the poet explains what happens to the poor man if he makes it to old age. Carrying on the theme of religion, the man has a “rev’rend hoar.” 

This phrase uses the term hoar, which is short for hoarfrost, frozen dewdrops. However, this term is often used to describe white hair. Thus, in two words, the poet asserts that this man is in the winter of his life and covered with a white beard that makes him look like a reverend or religious hermit. 

This poor man cannot work anymore due to his withering body, so he limps and stumbles around, begging wherever he goes. As he begs, he tells people his “melancholy case,” narrating his life story to anyone who will pity him. 

The “base covetise” or lowly greed of the rich guides this poor old man as he wanders to different neighborhoods, indicating that he only begs for money from the most wealthy people nearby. 

However, these rich people have “pride, unmindful of its parent dust.” This statement means that the wealthy do not realize that pride has no meaning and is just as insignificant as dust, just like how the poor man’s “dusty pillow” offers him no rest or comfort. However, it also implies that pride, like dirt, dust, and pillows, is low to the ground — which means that it is the lowest of the low. 

Still, this pride causes the wealthy people to scare the old beggar, threatening to lock him up in the dungeon (jail) or tie him to the whipping post for punishment. 

FAQs

Similar Poetry

While it may be easy to discard this poem as an analysis of the conditions of the poor in 18th century England, complaint poems such as this one are still relevant today. Many poets throughout the ages have breathed new life into this poem, emphasizing how monumental and universal it is.

Some other well-known poems that touch on the same topics as this selection from ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ include:

• ‘London’ by William Blake – a dark and dreary poem of 1789 in which the speaker describes the difficulties of life in London through the structure of a walk.
• ‘The Complaints of the Poor’ by Robert Southey – an English Romantic period ballad that takes direct inspiration from ‘The Complaints of Poverty’ by Nicholas James.
• ‘Poverty’ by Marinela Reka – a modern poem from 2011 that uses very similar rhetorical devices and appeals to the wealthy to help the poor.

Many people also connect this poem with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In the music genre, popular songs from the 1960s and 1970s, such as Streets of London by Ralph McTell and Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ by The Velvet Underground, call back to the structure, themes, and devices that Nicholas James uses in ‘The Complaints of Poverty. As you can see, James’ poem lives on in our social consciousness as a problem unsolved.