Church Sociable Poem by Jean Starr Untermeyer

'Isn't it quaint,' he turned and said to me,
'To watch these village people at the fair?'
But I had seen too often what was there;
I shrugged impatience at his inquiry….
I was a child again, and Mrs. Lee
And other members of The Ladies'id,
At tables on the lawn, in meek parde,
Were serving cakes and glasses of iced-tea.
I hated this weak pomp of charity,
This pauper's feast to aid the stricken poor.
I watched these too-thin ladies seek their door
In sweetly pious insincerity;
Holding themselves so righteously done,
Turning their Christian backs on Mrs. Cohn.