A Pedlar

By John Dowland

17th Century


FINE knacks for ladies! cheap, choice, brave, and new,
         Good pennyworths--but money cannot move:
I keep a fair but for the Fair to view--
         A beggar may be liberal of love.
Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true,
         The heart is true.

Great gifts are guiles and look for gifts again;
         My trifles come as treasures from my mind:
It is a precious jewel to be plain;
         Sometimes in shell the orient'st pearls we find:--
Of others take a sheaf, of me a grain!
         Of me a grain!

DayPoems Poem No. 60
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/60.html">A Pedlar by John Dowland</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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