They Called Thee Merry England, In Old Time; A Happy People Won For Thee That Name With Envy Heard In Many A Distant Clime; And, Spite Of Change, For Me Thou Keep'St The Same Endearing Title, A Responsive Chime To The Heart'S Fond Belief; Though Some There Are Whose Sterner Judgments Deem That Word A Snare For Inattentive Fancy, Like The Lime Which Foolish Birds Are Caught With. Can, I Ask, This Face Of Rural Beauty Be A Mask For Discontent, And Poverty, And Crime; These Spreading Towns A Cloak For Lawless Will? Forbid It, Heaven! And Merry England Still Shall Be Thy Rightful Name, In Prose And Rhyme!