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Thomas Moore - Corn and Catholics
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"What! still those two infernal questions,
That with our meals our slumbers mix —
That spoil our tempers and digestions —
Eternal Corn and Catholics!

Gods! were there ever two such bores?
Nothing else talk`d of night or morn —
Nothing in doors, or out of doors,
But endless Catholics and Corn!

Never was such a brace of pests —
While Ministers, still worse than either,
Skill`d but in feathering their nests,
Plague us with both, and settle neither.

So addled in my cranium meet
Popery and Corn, that oft I doubt,
Whether this year, `twas bonded Wheat
Or bonded Papists, they let out.

Here, landlords, here, polemics nail you,
Arm`d with all rubbish they can rake up;
Prices and Texts at once assail you —
From Daniel these, and those from Jacob.

And when you sleep, with head still torn
Between the two, their shapes you mix,
Till sometimes Catholics seem Corn —
Then Corn again seems Catholics.

Now, Dantzic wheat before you floats —
Now, Jesuits from California —
Now, Ceres, link`d with Titus Oats,
Comes dancing through the "Porta Cornea."

Oft, too, the Corn grows animate,
And a whole crop of heads appears,
Like Papists, bearding Church and State —
Themselves, together by the ears!

In short, these torments never cease;
And oft I wish myself transferr`d off
To some far, lonely land of peace,
Where Corn or Papists ne`er were heard of.

Yes, waft me, Parry, to the Pole,
For — if my fate is to be chosen
`Twixt bores and icebergs — on my soul,
I`d rather, of the two, be frozen!
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