It came from the prison this morning, <br />Close-twisted, neat-lettered, and flat; <br />It lies the hall doorway adorning, <br />A very good style of a mat. <br /> <br />Prison-made! how the spirit is moven <br />As we think of its story of dread -- <br />What wiles of the wicked are woven <br />And spun in its intricate thread! <br /> <br />The letters are new, neat and nobby, <br />Suggesting a masterly hand -- <br />Was it Sikes, who half-murdered the bobby, <br />That put the neat D on the "and"? <br /> <br />Some banker found guilty of laches -- <br />It's always called laches, you know -- <br />Had Holt any hand in those Hs? <br />Did Bertrand illumine that O? <br /> <br />That T has a look of the gallows, <br />That A's a triangle, I guess; <br />Was it one of the Mount Rennie fellows <br />Who twisted the strands of the S? <br /> <br />Was it made by some "highly connected", <br />Who is doing his spell "on his head", <br />Or some wretched woman detected <br />In stealing her children some bread? <br /> <br />Does it speak of a bitter repentance <br />For the crime that so easily came? <br />Of the wearisome length of the sentence, <br />Of the sin, and the sorrow, and shame? <br /> <br />A mat! I should call it a sermon <br />On sin, to all sinners addressed; <br />It would take a keen judge to determine <br />Whether writer or reader is best. <br /> <br />Though the doorway be hard as a pavestone, <br />I rather would use it than that -- <br />I'd as soon wipe my boots on a gravestone, <br />As I would on that Darlinghurst mat!<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/our-mat/
