Give me again my hollow tree,
A crust of bread, and liberty.

The couplet contrasts material deprivation with political and personal freedom, implying that liberty is the non-negotiable condition of a life worth living. The “hollow tree” and “crust of bread” evoke an almost animal or hermit-like subsistence—bare shelter and the simplest food—yet the speaker prefers this to comfort purchased at the cost of dependence or servitude. In Pope’s moral-satiric idiom, the line functions as a pointed reminder that dignity and autonomy outrank wealth, and that the trappings of civilization can become a gilded cage when they require submission to power, patronage, or corruption.