| Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904. | | | | Idea | | Sonnet 10. To nothing fitter can I thee compare | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | [First printed in 1599 (No. 12), and in all later editions.] |
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TO nothing fitter can I thee compare, | |
| Than to the son of some rich penny-father; | |
| Who having now brought on his end with care, | |
| Leaves to his son, all he had heaped together. | |
| This new rich Novice, lavish of his chest, | 5 |
| To one man gives! doth on another spend! | |
| Then here he riots! yet, amongst the rest, | |
| Haps to lend some to one true honest friend. | |
| Thy Gifts, thou in obscurity dost waste! | |
| False friends, thy Kindness! born but to deceive thee. | 10 |
| Thy Love that is on the unworthy placed! | |
| Time hath thy Beauty, which with age will leave thee! | |
| Only that little, which to me was lent, | |
| I give thee back! when all the rest is spent. | | | |
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