Alcaeus, 'Poverty'

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Poverty

The worst of ills, and hardest to endure,
Past hope, past cure,
Is Penury, who, with her sister-mate
Disorder, soon brings down the loftiest state,
And makes it desolate.
This truth the sage of Sparta told,
Aristodemus old,—
“Wealth makes the man.” On him that’s poor
Proud Worth looks down, and Honor shuts the door.

By Alcaeus
(Greek lyric poet, c.620–c.580 B.C.; banished for his resistance to tyrants. Translation by Sir William Jones)