JT-22-RETIREMENT.

RETIREMENT.

Let me retire from noisy fire,
From cares of wealth and scenes of strife,
And build my cottage where
Kind nature gives a cooling spring,
And merry birds wild anthems sing,
And flowers spontaneous there.

From sordid cares my mind would soar,
And trace the ways of God the more,
And swell his praises high;
My want’s but few would be supplied,
I’d seek no more on earth beside,
But look beyond the sky.

Should winter blow his Boreal storm,
I’d make my little cottage warm,
And gather round the fire;
My babes would smile and prattle sweet,
My wife, myself, and all would meet,
In one harmonic choir.

I’d teach the infant mind to pray,
And point it to a brighter day,
Than transient suns can give;
I’d join myself in holy song,
The praise of God I would prolong,
And thus I’d wish to live.

Should vernal suns expand the green,
And blooming beauties deck the scene,
I’d take the pleasant share;
To cultivate a little soil,
And see my labors and my toil,
A welcome harvest bear.

The world might pass me by with scorn,
Esteem me wretched and forlorn,
Not worthy of her train;
She might not know I had a name,
Unless it were contempt and shame,
Erratic in the brain.

But why should I regard the world?
With all her glories wide unfurl’d,
And all her golden store?
She proffers more than she contains,
Her pleasures turn to grief and pains,
And satisfy no more.

Her noisy sons who dash the street
And scorn their equals when they meet,
Know not their danger nigh;
But soon, alas! their race will end,
And then without a heavenly friend,
How wretched must they die!

But me, the giddy world knows not,
Obscured within my rural cot,
I have what nature gives;
For me the sun shines bright and clear,
For me refreshing rains appear, For me the harvest lives.

I envy not the rich man’s store,
I have his share, and ten times more,
A heavenly peace within;
My God in all his works I praise
To him my raptur’d soul I raise,
Above the world and sin.