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Ode To The Advocates For The Removal Of Smith-Field Market.

By Thomas Hood

Topics: classic

"Sweeping our flocks and herds." - DOUGLAS.     O Philanthropic men! -     For this address I need not make apology -     Who aim at clearing out the Smithfield pen,     And planting further off its vile Zoology -     Permit me thus to tell,     I like your efforts well,     For routing that great nest of Hornithology!     Be not dismay'd, although repulsed at first,     And driven from their Horse, and Pig, and Lamb parts,     Charge on! - you shall upon their hornworks burst,     And carry all their Bull-warks and their Ram-parts.     Go on, ye wholesale drovers!     And drive away the Smithfield flocks and herds!     As wild as Tartar-Curds,     That come so fat, and kicking, from their clovers;     Off with them all! - those restive brutes, that vex     Our streets, and plunge, and lunge, and butt, and battle;     And save the female sex     From being cow'd - like I - by the cattle!     Fancy, - when droves appear on     The hill of Holborn, roaring from its top, -     Your ladies - ready, as they own, to drop,     Taking themselves to Thomson's with a Fear-on!     Or, in St. Martin's Lane,     Scared by a Bullock, in a frisky vein, -     Fancy the terror of your timid daughters,     While rushing souse     Into a coffee-house,     To find it - Slaughter's!     Or fancy this: -     Walking along the street, some stranger Miss,     Her head with no such thought of danger laden,     When suddenly 'tis "Aries Taurus Virgo!" -     You don't know Latin, I translate it ergo,     Into your Areas a Bull throws the Maiden!     Think of some poor old crone     Treated, just like a penny, with a toss!     At that vile spot now grown     So generally known     For making a Cow Cross!     Nay, fancy your own selves far off from stall,     Or shed, or shop - and that an Ox infuriate     Just pins you to the wall,     Giving you a strong dose of Oxy-Muriate!     Methinks I hear the neighbors that live round     The Market-ground     Thus make appeal unto their civic fellows -     "'Tis well for you that live apart - unable     To hear this brutal Babel,     But our firesides are troubled with their bellows."     "Folks that too freely sup     Must e'en put up     With their own troubles if they can't digest;     But we must needs regard     The case as hard     That others' victuals should disturb our rest,     That from our sleep your food should start and jump us!     We like, ourselves, a steak,     But, Sirs, for pity's sake!     We don't want oxen at our doors to rump-us!"     "If we do doze - it really is too bad!     We constantly are roar'd awake or rung,     Through bullocks mad     That run in all the 'Night Thoughts' of our Young!"     Such are the woes of sleepers - now let's take     The woes of those that wish to keep a Wake!     O think! when Wombwell gives his annual feasts,     Think of these "Bulls of Basan," far from mild ones;     Such fierce tame beasts,     That nobody much cares to see the Wild ones!     Think of the Show woman, "what shows a Dwarf,"     Seeing a red Cow come     To swallow her Tom Thumb,     And forc'd with broom of birch to keep her off!     Think, too, of Messrs. Richardson and Co.,     When looking at their public private boxes,     To see in the back row     Three live sheep's heads, a porker's, and an Ox's!     Think of their Orchestra, when two horns come     Through, to accompany the double drum!     Or, in the midst of murder and remorses,     Just when the Ghost is certain,     A great rent in the curtain,     And enter two tall skeletons - of Horses!     Great Philanthropics! pray urge these topics     Upon the Solemn Councils of the Nation,     Get a Bill soon, and give, some noon,     The Bulls, a Bull of Excommunication!     Let the old Fair have fair play, as its right,     And to each Show and sight     Ye shall be treated with a Free List latitude;     To Richardson's Stage Dramas,     Dio - and Cosmo - ramas,     Giants and Indians wild,     Dwarf, Sea Bear, and Fat Child,     And that most rare of Shows - a Show of Gratitude!

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""Sweeping our flocks and herds." - DOUGLAS...."

Exploring the themes of classic, Thomas Hood delivers a powerful performance in "Ode To The Advocates For The Removal Of Smith-Field Market."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Thomas Hood

""Sweeping our flocks and herds." - DOUGLAS...." by Thomas Hood

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Thomas Hood

About Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood (1799–1845) was an English poet and humorist whose social protest poems "The Song of the Shirt" and "The Bridge of Sighs" drew attention to the plight of the poor. He was also a master of comic verse and wordplay.

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