Simon Lee, by William Wordsworth, uses the concept of addressing the reader directly to elicit a more convincing end result than that of The Beggar's Petition, which relies solely upon narrative to entrap the reader in sympathy for the characters at hand and in the end the feeling that nothing real was accomplished. Through the use of this "direct" language, Wordsworth steps beyond the typical conventions of the humanitarian poem to dive deeper than just sympathy and into the realm of social awareness. Despite the similar forms and simplistic language, tools of the trade for humanitarian poetry, Simon Lee is a much more involving and effective poem.

The two poems in question start off strikingly similar, both painting a picture of an old man withered into poverty. Both poems also begin with a narration style account of the characters. This however changes when The Beggar's Petition, in stanza...