| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920. |
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| Edward Shanks. 1892– |
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| 168. Complaint |
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| WHEN in the mines of dark and silent thought | |
| Sometimes I delve and find strange fancies there, | |
| With heavy labour to the surface brought | |
| That lie and mock me in the brighter air, | |
| Poor ores from starvèd lodes of poverty, | 5 |
| Unfit for working or to be refined, | |
| That in the darkness cheat the miner's eye, | |
| I turn away from that base cave, the mind. | |
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| Yet had I but the power to crush the stone | |
| There are strange metals hid in flakes therein, | 10 |
| Each flake a spark sole-hidden and alone, | |
| That only cunning, toilsome chemists win. | |
| All this I know, and yet my chemistry | |
| Fails and the pregnant treasures useless lie. | |
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