The Absent-Minded Beggar

The Absent-Minded Beggar is an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling, famously set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. It was written as part of an appeal by the Daily Mail to raise money for the dependents of soldiers fighting in the South African War (sometimes known as the Boer War), and exhorted its audience to "pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay— pay— pay!"