Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BISHOP'S SEE, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BISHOP'S SEE, by                    
First Line: "the see, the see, the bishop's see"
Last Line: Shall come to the wealthy bishop's see
Subject(s): Clergy;death;farm Life;love; "priests;rabbis;ministers;bishops;dead, The;agriculture;farmers;


The see, the see, the Bishop's see,
That ever wealthy Bishop's see,
Without a mark, without a bound,
It feeds on all the country round;
It grinds the farmers, eats the tithes,
And like an Incubus it lies,
I'm in the see, the Bishop's see,
I am where I would ever be,
With the rich above and the poor below,
The farmers sigh where'er I go,
However hard their lot may be
What matter, what matter,
For I'm in the Bishop's see.

I love, oh! how I love the tithe,
To see the Church and Clergy thrive;
To loll at ease from morn till noon,
Within the splendid drawing room;
While the farmers plough and sow
To make my coffers overflow.
I never see the starving poor
But I love my Bishopric more and more,
And firmly cling to its well lin'd nest,
As a child would cling to its mother's breast,
For a mother it was and is to me,
For I was born in the Bishop's see.

The sky was black, and wet the morn,
In the noisy hour when I was born;
The tithe pig squall'd, the thunder roll'd,
The cattle bellowed in the fold;
And never was heard such a hubbub wild
As welcom'd to life the tithe fed child;
I've liv'd since then amidst care and strife
Full fifty years a lazy life,
With wealth to spend and power to range,
And never have sought or sigh'd for change,
And Death whene'er he comes to me
Shall come to the wealthy Bishop's see.





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