This is an interesting poem which exposes with penchant irony the hollowness and false assumptions which underlie even an act of charity. It is vanity rather than real compassion and humanity which seems to impel the feeders of the poor.
1.1: The emphasis in this line seems to be on the fact that one thinks of feeding the poor only once a year, that is on Christmas day.
1. 2-3: The experience of waiting can be quite tantalizing and agonising for the hungry poor but the givers are insensitive to this feeling in the takers.
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11. 6-8: What is given is obviously porridge and it is a pity that a woman is not allowed to take even her own share to her hungry husband at hom6.
1.10: The receivers can get a shirt or a towel but not both.
1.13- 14: One of the assumptions of the upper class, namely that the poor can never be good or virtuous.
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What the poem aims at bringing out is obviously the un-Christian attitudes of those who profess Christian charity.