Classic Poem

To-DAY I dine with you at my own cost,
So why not fare the same, both guest and host?
You swallow Lucrine oysters large and fat,
I suck a whelk and cut my lips at that.
You're served with mushrooms, I chew fungus still
You have to do with turbot, I with brill.
Plump yellow doves your appetite assuage,
I have a magpie starved within its cage.
I'm by your side and yet I'm far away.
The dole has gone. Let's fare the same, I say.