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.
