The Married Life

O happy love of weans and Wife,
Ye make a man's heart dance;

Kindle the desert face of life
With colours of romance:

A Land of Promise sparkles where
Your rosier light hath shone;

Too distant to attain, but near
Enough to tempt us on.

'Tis here that Heaven striketh root
To give the Immortal birth,
Man tastes the unforbidden fruit
That deifies on earth.

All ye that such a Garden own,
Of winged thieves beware,
And trifles, light as thistle-down,
That sow the seeds of care.

Only in singleness of heart,
Ye keep the heaven ye win!
When Wife and Husband pull apart
The Serpent glideth in.