Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A PROPER SONG, by ANONYMOUS First Line: Fain would I have a pretty thing / to give unto my lady Last Line: "I said no harm, nor I meant no harm, / but as pretty a thing as may be" Subject(s): Courtship | ||||||||
Fain would I have a pretty thing To give unto my lady: I name no thing, nor I mean no thing, But as pretty a thing as may be. Twenty journeys would I make, And twenty ways would hie me, To make adventure for her sake To set some matter by me. But I would fain have a pretty thing. . . Some do long for pretty knacks, And some for strange devices: God send me that my lady lacks, I care not what the price is. Thus fain would I have a pretty thing. . . Some go here and some go there Where gazes be not geason; And I go gaping everywhere, But still come out of season. Yet fain would I have a pretty thing. . . I walk the town and tread the street, In every corner seeking: The pretty thing I cannot meet That's for a lady's liking. Fain would I have a pretty thing. . . The mercers pull me going by, The silk-wives say, "What lack ye?" "The thing you have not," then say I, "Ye foolish folk, go pack ye!" But fain would I have a pretty thing. . . It is not all the silk in Cheape, Nor all the golden treasure, Nor twenty bushels on a heap, Can do my lady pleasure. But fain would I have a pretty thing. . . The gravers of the golden shows With jewels do beset me, The shemsters in the shops, that sews, They do nothing but let me. But fain would I have a pretty thing. . . But were it in the wit of man By any means to make it, I could for money buy it than, And say, "Fair lady, take it!" Thus fain would I have a pretty thing. . . O lady, what a luck is this -- That my good willing misseth To find what pretty thing it is That my good lady wisheth! Thus fain would I have had this pretty thing To give unto my lady: I said no harm, nor I meant no harm, But as pretty a thing as may be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AS YOU WALK OUT ONE MORNING by GLYN MAXWELL TALE OF THE MAYOR'S SON by GLYN MAXWELL THE RIVALS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MARJORIE'S WOOING by EMMA LAZARUS THE FORTUNATE SPILL by MARILYN NELSON REQUEST TO LEDA by DYLAN THOMAS TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
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