Lines
Written on receiving Notice of a Summons for the Non payment of a
Church Rate.
Indignant Muse ! speak out ! and say1
Why dire oppression bears such sway2
In this, our far-famed, isle ?3
Say, why the rich oppress the poor,4
Compel them burdens to endure5
More heavy than their toil ?6
Speak louder still ! and never cease :7
Say why the “ messengers of peace,”8
Or those who so profess,9
Should thus demand the widow’s mite ;10
And, if she cannot pay, delight11
The widow to distress ?12
Say, why these men of tender mind !13
Should thus so strongly be combined,14
(Against the truths they spread)15
So unrelentingly to press16
The desolate and fatherless,17
And rob them of their bread ?18
No wonder infidels are found,19
Scoffers and sceptic knaves abound,20
And vice and crime increase,21
When the sole cause lies in the men22
Who tell us, o’er and o’er again,23
They’re sent to preach us peace.24
No wonder England’s sons retire,25
More than half-ruin’d, and expire26
In some far distant land,27
Cursing the church, without a dread,28
From the poor curate to its head,29
As an oppressive band.30
O England ! my country ! thou31
Wilt ere long suffer, shouldst thou bow32
To such tyrannic sway !33
Thy sons departing sap thy strength,34
And thou wilt be o’ercome at length,35
In some unlook’d for day !36