Page:The-knickerbocker-gallery-(knickerbockergal00clarrich).djvu/622

The land was dealt to nobles new,
 And men of foreign birth,
And London loons were swarming round
 The broad old Norman hearth.

His Age had perished, and the Race
 That gave the Age renown
Fell with it, and the Castle bowed
 In silence to the Town.
Low lay its great and mighty Chief,
 Its last and noblest man,
And dawning o'er his broken brand
 The Age of Trade began:

The Age when Barter sneered at Birth,
 And parchment pedigrees
Outweighed the names the Normans bore
 Across the stormy seas;
When shone no more the honest brow
 Beneath the burgonot,
And men began to fawn, and smile,
 And cheat, and lie, and plot:

When knaves trod on the knightly heel,
 And Avarice, like a rust,
Eat out the brave old chivalry,
 And swords grew thick with dust;
When churls and serfs grew fat with gain,
 And villains bought the land,
And scorned the iron men of yore,
 The battle-axe and brand.

The pen usurped the sword; the loom,
 The mace; the plough, the spear;
And Agriculture cut the grain
 Where rang the battle cheer;
And men began to feel the rule
 Of Trade, more potent grown
Than baron grim, or iron earl,
 Or monarch on his throne.