Living

A Wish

by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex 1565–1601

From The Golden Treasury, ed. F. T. Palgrave (1861)

Living

Happy were he could finish forth his fate
In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure
From all society, from love and hate
Of worldly folk, there should he sleep secure;

Then wake again, and yield God ever praise;
Content with hip, with haws, and brambleberry;
In contemplation passing still his days,
And change of holy thoughts to make him merry:

Who, when he dies, his tomb might be the bush
Where harmless robin resteth with the thrush:
--Happy were he!

MLA

Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex. “A Wish.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/devereux/0/.

Chicago

Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex. “A Wish.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/devereux/0/.

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