Labourer but lost his place because too old for heavy work.
Busker (having lost his business, he went to sea for a few months before taking up busking).
3.
4.
Husband and father of 2 children.
Husband and father of 6 children.
Wife works as a book folder.
The wife is a waistcoat-maker.
I am barely a man. I am thinned out and tinny. The wind blows through my ribs. Too light to shift a cart, all our broken things, down this endless damp passage. Gone midnight. Even the darkness divides into invisible blocks and barricades, twists into an endless loop. I stumble against a step in the dark I've stumbled on before. The children whimper for milk and a potato. We left at daybreak but not even the postman who's worked this round for eighteen years admits there is such an address. My palms shred. Not enough of me left to counterweight the drag of another day. What's the matter, she asks. I pick up the shafts with blistered hands. Nothing, I say. There's not a pipe or ďŹ ddle I can't play Wayhey, blow the man down nor a whore or a wager I won't pay Give me some time to blow the man down Some days the coins come rolling in Wayhey, blow the man down A penny on the ponies and belly full of gin Give me some time to blow the man down When the days grow short and the debts grow long Wayhey, blow the man down no-one has time for a jig or a song Give me some time to blow the man down Went home but the wife and children had own Wayhey, blow the man down and I'd rather hang here than be all alone Give me some time to blow the man down