Love

Of Love Gift

by Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies) c. 1575–1602

From A Poetical Rhapsody (1602), ed. A. H. Bullen (1890–91)

Love

Who gives a gift to bind a friend thereby,
Doth set or put his gift to usury:
And he that gives a gift that is not free,
Give where he list, so that he give not me.

For bought and sold is friendship strange,
Who lives by selling, lives by change;
And he, that loves to change his friend,
Will turn to nothing in the end.

✦ ✦ ✦

Credited to "A. W." in Francis Davison's own manuscript list (Bullen prints the initials in square brackets).

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Of Love Gift.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/125/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan miscellanies). “Of Love Gift.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-miscellanies/125/.

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