Page:The Spirit of the Nation.djvu/113

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
SPIRIT OF THE NATION.
17

III.

The poor laws, to add to our griefs, are saddled upon us, poor asses,
With commissioners added, the thieves, to reverse ev'ry vote the board passes;
And yet, though the taxes we pay, the paupers in hordes still infest us,
They'll not go to the workhouse, they say, they'd just as soon enter a pesthouse,
No wonder we've shocking bad times.


IV.

Some say that provisions are cheap—so they are; but when none we can buy,
Pigs, poultry, and oxen, and sheep, are as far from our reach as when high;
Where all this will end I can't say, so I may as well wind up my rhymes;
But this I'll observe, by the way, that I ne'er saw such shocking bad times,
I ne'er saw such shocking bad times.


THE GATHERING OF LEINSTER.

A.D. 1643.

I.

Serf! with thy fetters o'erladen,
Why crouch you in dastardly woe?
Why weep o'er thy chains like a maiden,
Nor strike for thy manhood a blow?
Not thus would our fathers bemoan us—
When Tyranny raised the lash, then
They practised the "Lex Talionis"
Of Feidlim, and lash'd it again.