Self-deprecation

At least the poor man had a gate.

and the goverment is ordering lots of estates.

Isn't the poor man supposed to be at the rich man's gate? I may be wrong, but that's the way I've always read it...

No, castles don't have gates, do they?

Portcullis?
Portcullises?
Portcullii??
Any port in a storm?

You've had it wrong all these years Ana?!

How about the ballad about the gypsies singing at the castle gate? That castle had a gate.

And one of the gypsies pulled the posh bird.

Aha! I may not have been deluded all these years then!

I have always pictures the poor man in his little cottage just outside the gate to the castle. A handy position when the lady of the manor was out distributing largesse.

I have a real visual image of that "Poor man at his Gate" as well Elegran
I wonder if it was ever in an illustrated book I may have seen.

I cannot stand that hymn now largely because of the social attitudes implied in that original third verse.
"God made them high and lowly.
And ordered their estate."

They miss that verse out now!

I always thought it meant that he did not actually order them to be in that positions, but ordered arranged the template so that there those differentials existed - he presumably allowed individuals to move from one category to another.

Punctuation matters too, whether you read "He made them, high or lowly," ie, made everyone, whatever their social class, or "He made them high or lowly," ie, caused them to be high or lowly.

Eats shoots and leaves!