Ned’s Delicate Way
Ned’s Delicate Way - meaning Summary
Pride and Quiet Generosity
The poem shows a small, intimate act of friendship in which social pride and mutual respect shape behavior. The narrator is short of tobacco but ashamed to ask. Ned senses this and, without confronting him, invents a polite pretext to offer tobacco. The scene highlights unspoken kindness, restraint, and the ways friends protect each other’s dignity through gentle, indirect gestures.
Read Complete AnalysesNed knew I was short of tobacco one day, And that I was too proud to ask for it; He hated such pride, but his delicate way Forbade him to take me to task for it. I loathed to be cadging tobacco from Ned, But, when I was just on the brink of it; ‘I’ve got a new brand of tobacco, he said – Try a smoke, and let’s know what you think of it.
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