Anonymous

A Pedlar

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!