Ill fares the land to hast'ning ills a prey (1)
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.'
But how much more unfortunate are those
Where wealth declines and population grows!
(1) This line is execrable; and I note it.
I quote it as the faulty poet wrote it. 

Note: first two lines quote Oliver Goldsmith.
First published <<1922

Text Authorship:

• by (Joseph) Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953), "On vital statistics", appears in Sonnets and Verse (1938), first published 1938 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Archie James Potter (b. 1918), "On vital statistics", published 1972 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Ten Epigrams by Hilaire Belloc [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-17
Line count: 6
Word count: 47