THE GOOSE AND THE COMMON

This poem seems to refer to the wholesale enclosure of commons in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
but when and where was it first seen?
Any leads enabling the poem to be traced to its primary source would be gratefully received.
What was the original title?


The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don't escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

ANON



Click here to return.