The Knocker aches with motion; day by day

The door groans on with hard and desperate knocks;

Duns—gentle, fervent, furious—come in flocks;

And still they press, and still they go away,

And call again, and saunter off, or stay;

Duns of all shapes—the goose, the wolf, the fox—

All punctual by their several parish-clocks:

And still the answer is the same—no pay!

Alas! that house one penny doth not hold,—

One farthing were not found, on hands and knees,

No, not a doit, in all its crevices;

Yet sits the Inmate, cramp'd, and lean, and cold,

Writing a pamphlet;—and its title? "Gold!

Or, England's Debt paid off with perfect ease."