Unless above himself he can

Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!

Samuel Daniel (1562-1619): To the Countess of Cumberland. Stanza 12.

Poor and content is rich and rich enough.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

The short and simple annals of the poor.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 8.

My friends were poor but honest.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): All's Well that Ends Well. Act i. Sc. 3.

I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3.

Whene'er I take my walks abroad,

How many poor I see!

What shall I render to my God

For all his gifts to me?

Isaac Watts (1674-1748): Divine Songs. Song iv.

Some jay of Italy,

Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him:

Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.

Some have too much, yet still do crave;

I little have, and seek no more:

They are but poor, though much they have,

And I am rich with little store:

They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;

They lack, I have; they pine, I live.

Edward Dyer (Circa 1540-1607): MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

Who steals my purse steals trash; 't is something, nothing;

'T was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iii. Sc. 3.

A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Traveller. Line 386.

A poor lone woman.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Who dared to love their country, and be poor.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): On his Grotto at Twickenham.

I'm very lonely now, Mary,

For the poor make no new friends;

But oh they love the better still

The few our Father sends!

Lady Dufferin (1807-1867): Lament of the Irish Emigrant.

You hear that boy laughing?—you think he's all fun;

But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;

The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,

And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): The Boys.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you

From seasons such as these?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;

Oh give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.

Thomas Moss (1740-1808): The Beggar.

Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night i. Line 67.

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.

A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.

Earl Of Rochester (1647-1680): On the King.

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,

That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 413.

How poor are they that have not patience!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.

I give thee all,—I can no more,

Though poor the off'ring be;

My heart and lute are all the store

That I can bring to thee.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): My Heart and Lute.

Some have too much, yet still do crave;

I little have, and seek no more:

They are but poor, though much they have,

And I am rich with little store:

They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;

They lack, I have; they pine, I live.

Edward Dyer (Circa 1540-1607): MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.

But yesterday the word of Caesar might

Have stood against the world; now lies he there,

And none so poor to do him reverence.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iii. Sc. 2.

It never was our guise

To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xiv. Line 65.

Poor Tom's a-cold.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.

When love could teach a monarch to be wise,

And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune;

He had not the method of making a fortune.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On his own Character.

Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer,

Childless with all her children, wants an heir;

To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store,

Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 147.

He that holds fast the golden mean,

And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,

Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode x.

A poor, weak, palsy-stricken, churchyard thing.

John Keats (1795-1821): The Eve of St. Agnes. Stanza 18.

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iii. Sc. 2.

A wise man poor

Is like a sacred book that's never read,—

To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead.

This age thinks better of a gilded fool

Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.

Thomas Dekker (1572-1632): Old Fortunatus.

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor;

And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 905.