Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PROPER SONG, by ANONYMOUS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PROPER SONG, by                    
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.








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