regarded and received on all sides by his fellows
With attitudes of dignity and expressions of mandarin-like solemnity,
And his laughing heart could fetch no smile
To the faces of those about him.

But when, on a recent manifestation of evil spirits,
He was hailed before those in authority
And commanded to pay very many taels,
For the fault of possessing some morsels of chandu, the Great Tobacco,
And his heart was heavy and dark as a raincloud within him,
He was received on all sides
With attitudes of mirth and expressions of no-gravity.

Dockside Noises

There are in Limehouse many sounds;
A hundred different sounds by day and night.

The crash and mutter of the dockside railway,
The noise of quarrel, the noise of fist on face,
My country's songs, guitars, and gramophones,
The noise of boot on stone,
The noise of women bargaining their flesh,
The noise of singers in the ships,
Sounds of threat and sounds of fear,
Blasts of hammer and steel and iron,
The scream of syren, the wail of hooter,
The clangour of angry bells,
The boom of guns, the clatter of factories,
The panic of feet, and malevolent words.

All these sounds I know, and they disturb me not.
The sound that is to me most terrible,
That snatches slumber from me,
Is the sound that is most common:
The scream of a child at night.

Reproof and Approbation

Because I gave a piece of silk
To my friend of the golden curls,
One (may the dogs devour him) threw a stone at my window,
And hooted and jeered and made base noise with his mouth.
Nay, worse, this son of a sea-slug (may his line perish)
Hurled hard names at my friend,
Calling her Tart, and Flusey, and Tom; and, as we walked together,
Cried: `Watcher, Nancy, who's yer friend with the melon face
And the bug-eaten cabbage-leaf on his head?'

The lean and scurvy dog that slinks about Pennyfields
Flew in great fear at sight of this reprover of our doings,
And came to me, and rubbed itself against my shoe.

The Feast of Go Nien

We are now in the Pepper Month;
And soon will come the Feast of Go Nien.
Then I will pay my debts, and gather in my dues.
I will walk in the great procession;
And afterwards I will hang up my devil-chasers
And will proceed to the restaurant of Ng Tack,
And drink spring wine with him and meet my friends.

That evening I shall eat of the best:
Of chicke