Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/88
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52
WINDSOR-FOREST.
To savage beasts and [1]savage laws a prey,
And Kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the skies, dispeopled air and floods,
The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.
Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves;
(For wiser Brutes were backward to be slaves.)
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,
And ev'n the Elements a Tyrant sway'd?
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;
The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
No wonder savages or subjects slain
Were equal crimes in a despotic reign,
Both doom'd alike for sportive Tyrants bled,
But subjects starv'd while savages were fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was Man.
And Kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the skies, dispeopled air and floods,
The lonely Lords of empty wilds and woods.
Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves;
(For wiser Brutes were backward to be slaves.)
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,
And ev'n the Elements a Tyrant sway'd?
In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft show'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain;
The swain with tears to beasts his labour yields,
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
No wonder savages or subjects slain
Were equal crimes in a despotic reign,
Both doom'd alike for sportive Tyrants bled,
But subjects starv'd while savages were fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chace began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was Man.
- ↑ The forest Laws.
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