During the early- to mid-1800s , a radical of British poets marshaled their talent to inspire a pop movement against the “ Corn Laws , ” a set of politics policies to further pad the pocket of land - own aristocrats . Among the most knock-down poems were the Corn Law Rhymes , penned by businessman Ebenezer Elliott .
As the JSTOR Daily blognotes , the first consequential “ Corn Law ” sought to inflate the damage of essential grains such as wheat , barley and oats high up by blocking cheaper grains from afield , and was spend in 1815 .
The net effect of this law , known as the Importation Act , was to beat the inadequate with higher food prices in orderliness to serve a land - own oligarchy with a stranglehold over the government . There were tearing riots in the streets , and the government activity even deploy the armed forces to protect legislator :
Despite democratic opposition and unionised resistance , not only did parliament pass the Importation Act , they maintained the insurance for decades to fall — keeping the cost of living high for British smart set for serve the politically potent few .
The unjustness of the Corn Laws — and the wooden-headed political economy behind it — prompt a generation of British intellectuals in the societal sciences and arts who wage in a warfare of words for reform . One of the lead poets of the day was Ebenezer Elliott … . a successful man of affairs and idealist based in Sheffield , who compose a series of poem called the Corn Law Rhymes , which were published in 1831 by the Sheffield Mechanics ’ Anti - Bread - Tax Society , an activistic organization that he helped found .
Here is a percentage of one of his verse form called “ Caged Rats ” :
“ Ye coop us up , and task our bread ,
And marvel why we pine :
But ye are fat , and pear-shaped , and ruby-red ,
And fill’d with tax - buy vino .
Thus , twelve rats starve while three rats thrive ,
( Like you on mine and me , )
When fifteen lowlife are caged alert ,
With solid food for nine and three . ”
“ Make hurriedness , slow varlet ! prohibit craft ,
Prohibit dependable addition ;
Turn all the good that God hath made
To fear , and detest , and pain in the neck ;
Till beggar all , assassins all ,
All anthropophagus we be ,
And death shall have no funeral ,
From shipless sea to ocean . ”
The Corn Law Rhymes made Elliot famous around the world . The British historiographer Asa Briggs call Elliott “ the poet of economical revolution ” — which Elliott himself describe as the “ bang-up , the most beneficial , the only crimeless Revolution , which military personnel has yet realise . ”
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