Pour les Pauvres

Pour les Pauvres
(Jersey around 1620)

The lot of the landless man is hard,
For those left outside the farmyard,
When the farmer's family is large;
No pay for workers now to charge,
And so the begging does increase,
With such poverty, will not cease,
And little children beg for coins
For hungry bellies, aching loins;
At Church is set a box engraved,
For the poor, those now enslaved,
By despair, crying out for relief;
And to show the merits of belief,
After the Service, at every door,
Are collecting pots, making sure
That love will triumph over hate,
Even if they rejected a poor rate,
Ordered the beggars to the stocks'
This was the way of rich with poor,
Piety gives only so much, no more.