IN ancient times, no matter where, A nation lived of wise men, Who lawyers fed with special care, Bum-bailiffs and excisemen; Who made good laws to guard a hare, A partridge or a pheasant, But left the poor to nature's care: Say, was not this right pleasant? Who shut up men within brick walls, Because they were indebted; Then let them out when hunger's calls Had them to shadows fretted; Who paid ten thousand fools and knaves, And twenty thousand villains, To make their fellow-subjects slaves, And steal their pence and shillings; Who cut each others' throats for fun, On land and on the water, While half the world looked weeping on, And half was burst with laughter. Who to this country would not run, Where only freedom's got at? Where birds escape the fatal gun, And men alone are shot at. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...YOUTH PENETRANT by CONRAD AIKEN SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: OAKS TUTT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONNET: 50 by GEORGE SANTAYANA THE WINE OF NIGHT by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE POOR by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS EPITAPH: FOR MY GRANDMOTHER by COUNTEE CULLEN |