NOEL, Roden [as “Hon. Rodel Noel"].
Poor People's Christmas. A Poem.
NOEL, Roden [as “Hon. Rodel Noel"].
Poor People's Christmas. A Poem.
Among the most elusive Bodley Head titles, encountered far less frequently than expected, even given the combination of limitation and fragility of this pamphlet of only 22 pages, plus a leaf of ads: Roden was independently wealthy, and this must have been a subsidised production - the text is a powerful and revolutionary (if sentimental) attack on the evils of poverty:
True men devise large schemes to heal
This gangrene of the Commonweal,
This prime injustice of the world,
That drones, who waste the wealth, may steal
From makers, to the dunghill hurled… .
Nelson, 1890.11/15. Corner slightly creased, but a very good copy.
