Poetry Corner: Holy Thursday: Is this a holy thing to see

Rev Henry DuncanOn this day in 1774  the Rev. Henry Duncan, founder of the first ever savings bank, was born at Lochrutton. A great champion of the poor, he set the bank up in his parish of Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire. At the time, other banks required a ten pound minimum deposit, making them completely out of reach for the vast majority of the populace. The savings banks only required a minimum of sixpence, and 1% of the interest of the combined deposits went to a charity fund. Scot Clans


By William Blake

Is this a holy thing to see,

In a rich and fruitful land,

Babes reducd to misery,

Fed with cold and usurous hand?

 

Is that trembling cry a song?

Can it be a song of joy?

And so many children poor?

It is a land of poverty!

 

And their sun does never shine.

And their fields are bleak & bare.

And their ways are fill’d with thorns.

It is eternal winter there.

 

For where-e’er the sun does shine,

And where-e’er the rain does fall:

Babe can never hunger there,

Nor poverty the mind appall.

 

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