[from Collected Works, T.E.Brown]

LIME STREET

You might have been as lovely as the dawn,
Had household sweetness nurtured you, and arts—
Domestic, and the strength which love imparts
To lowliness, and chastened ardour drawn
From vital sap that burgeons in the brawn
Around the dreadful arms of Hercules,
And shapes the curvature of Dias’s knees,
And has its course in lilies of the lawn.
Even now your flesh is soft and full, defaced
Although it be, and bruised.
Unblenched your eyes
Meet mine, as misinterpreting their call,
Then sink, reluctant, forced to recognise
That there are men whose look is not unchaste—
O God ! the pain ! the horror of it all!

Originally titled Lime Street Station, Liverpool' and dated August 1883.

Lime Street is the Main street in Liverpool - on one side is the impressive St George Hall, Central Library Museum etc, on the other shops, many Public Houses (at this time including, at the top of the street, the 'Legs of Man'), the main Railway station and Adelphi Hotel. T.E.B. would of necessity frequently passed through here en route between the Manx Packet and his train to Clifton.

His brother, Hugh Stowell Brown, was for many years a Baptist minister in Liverpool