Adams Papers

Decr. 25. Wednesday. Christmas.
[from the Diary of John Adams]

Decr. 25. Wednesday. Christmas.

Lady Lucans Verses on Ireland1

Hear this, Ye Great, as from the Feast Ye rise

Which every Plundered Element supplies!

Hear, when fatigued, not nourish’d Ye have din’d

The Food of Thousands is to roots confin’d.

Eternal Fasts that know no Taste of Bread:

Nor where who sows the Corn by Corn is fed.

Throughout the Year, no feast e’er crowns his board

Four Pence a day, ah! what can that afford? &c.

Open our Ports at once with generous Minds,

Let Commerce be as free as Waves and Winds.

Seize quick the Time, for now, consider well

Whole Quarters of the World, at once rebel.

1Margaret (Smyth) Bingham, wife of an Irish peer, the first Baron Lucan, was better known for her paintings than for her verse (DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements. description ends ).

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