Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON A HALFPENNY WHICH A YOUNG LADY GAVE A BEGGAR, WHICH AUTHOR REDEEMED, by HENRY FIELDING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A HALFPENNY WHICH A YOUNG LADY GAVE A BEGGAR, WHICH AUTHOR REDEEMED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear little, pretty, favourite ore
Last Line: Tho' he should keep me out of heaven.
Variant Title(s): Written Extempore On A Halfpenny
Subject(s): Money


Dear little, pretty, favourite ore,
That once increas'd Gloriana's store
That lay within her bosom bless'd,
Gods might have envied thee thy nest.
I've read, imperial Fove of old
For love transform'd himself to gold:
And why, for a more lovely lass,
May he not now have lurk'd in brass;
Oh! rather than from her he'd part,
He'd shut that charitable heart,
That heart whose goodness nothing less
Than his vast power, could dispossess.
From Gloriana's gentle touch
Thy mighty value now is such,
That thou to me art worth alone
More than his medals are to Sloan.
Not for the silver and the gold
Which Corinth lost should'st thou be sold:
Not for the envied mighty mass
Which misers wish, or M -- h has:
Not for what India sends to Spain,
Nor all the riches of the Main.
While I possess thy little store,
Let no man call, or think, me poor;
Thee, while alive, my breast shall have,
My hand shall grasp thee in the grave:
Nor shalt thou be to Peter given
Tho' he should keep me out of heaven.





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