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The Peter-penny

by Robert Herrick, 1648

Fresh strewings allow
  To my sepulchre now,
To make my lodging the sweeter;
  A staff or a wand
  Put then in my hand,
With a penny to pay S. Peter.

  Who has not a cross
  Must sit with the loss,
And no whit further must venture;
  Since the porter he
  Will paid have his fee,
Or else not one there must enter.

  Who at a dead lift
  Can’t send for a gift
A pig to the priest for a roaster,
  Shall hear his clerk say,
  By yea and by nay,
No penny, no paternoster.

Published in Hesperides
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