The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont ... Edited from the autograph manuscript with introduction and notes by Eloise Robinson |
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Avarice
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 | The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont |  |
430
Avarice
June 2.
1
And truly yesterdayI did suspect as much: away
Foule misgotten Elf,
Thou cheat'st thy silly self
In thinking I had any drift
To favor thee by praising Thrift.
2
Hence odious Avarice,Thou mad & self-revenging Vice,
Who dost no toyl refuse
For that thou dar'st not use.
Thrift onely gathers, Thou dost scrape,
She to injoy, Thou but to keep.
3
Thou Jayler art, but SheThe Steward of her gold: with thee
It rusts, with her it shines:
Nor do its deepest Mines
Smother & lock it up so fast
As the vast gulph of thy dark chest.
431
4
For that dark chest of thineNo pioner must hope to mine,
Since thy Necessitie
Cannot sufficient be
To digg thy treasure thence; so deep
Thou, to thy loss, thy gains dost keep.
5
Less doth the Thunders crackThan news of petty Charges, wake
Thy wretched fears; & though
All thy religion's how
The best of money to possess,
Thy Money never current is.
6
Some Beast or other isThe embleme of each other Vice:
But never Brute was yet
So brutish as to get
The world a copie of foule Thee:
Midst Monsters, thou must Monster be.
| The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont | |