Ode to Content

Come, charming guest, divine Content,
And chase my cares away;
The sweetest bliss to mortals lent,
Is thy kind healing ray.

Thy presence smooths the face of woe,
And softens ev'ry pain;
From thee a thousand pleasures flow,
A guiltless, lovely train.

Humility thy steps attends;
Her sweetly pensive eyes
To earth in peaceful thought she bends,
Without a wish to rise.

With cheerful air and look sedate,
See gentle Patience nigh,
And Hope, fair sister, smiling wait,
With heav'n-erected eye -:

While Faith, (kind seraph!) points her view
Beyond the starry plain,
To the bright worlds where, ever new,
Immortal pleasures reign.

Thy comforts, O divine Content,
From those fair regions flow;
For bliss sincere was never meant
On earth's low soil to grow.

In cold affliction's dreary shade,
Fresh-blooming joys are thine!
Can wintry storms the heart invade
When vernal sun -beams shine?

Come then, thou dear delightful guest.
Thy lov'd companions bring;
Come, take possession of my breast,
And winter shall be spring.