| |
| WE’VE lived for forty years, dear wife, | |
| And walked together side by side, | |
| And you to-day are just as dear | |
| As when you were my bride. | |
| I’ve tried to make life glad for you, | 5 |
| One long, sweet honeymoon of joy, | |
| A dream of marital content, | |
| Without the least alloy. | |
| I’ve smoothed all boulders from our path, | |
| That we in peace might toil along; | 10 |
| But always hastening to admit | |
| That I was right and you were wrong. | |
| |
| No mad diversity of creed | |
| Has ever sundered me from thee; | |
| For I permit you evermore | 15 |
| To borrow your ideas of me. | |
| And thus it is, through weal or woe, | |
| Our love for evermore endures; | |
| For I permit that you should take | |
| My views and creeds, and make them yours. | 20 |
| And thus I let you have my way, | |
| And thus in peace we toil along | |
| For I am willing to admit | |
| That I am right and you are wrong. | |
| |
| And when our matrimonial skiff | 25 |
| Strikes snags in love’s meandering stream, | |
| I lift our shallop from the rocks, | |
| And float as in a placid dream. | |
| And well I know our marriage bliss | |
| While life shall last will never cease; | 30 |
| For I shall always let thee do, | |
| In generous love, just what I please. | |
| Peace comes, and discord flies away, | |
| Love’s bright day follows hatred’s night; | |
| For I am ready to admit | 35 |
| That you are wrong and I am right. | |
| |
| Dear wife, when discord reared its head, | |
| And love’s sweet light forgot to shine, | |
| ’T was then I freely would permit | |
| That thy will should’st conform to mine. | 40 |
| In all things, whether great or small, | |
| In all life’s path we’ve wandered through, | |
| I’ve graciously let you perform | |
| Just what I wanted you to do. | |
| No altercation could destroy | 45 |
| The love that held us sure and strong; | |
| For evermore would I admit | |
| That I was right and you were wrong. | |
| |
| Sweet wedded love! O life of bliss! | |
| Our years in peace have flown along; | 50 |
| For you admit that I was right, | |
| And I admit that you were wrong. | |
| No dogged stubbornness of soul | |
| Has ever wrenched my heart from thine; | |
| For thy will ever was my own | 55 |
| Because thy will was always mine. | |
| So sweet forgiveness crowns our years, | |
| And sheds on us its tender light; | |
| For I admit that you were wrong, | |
| And you admit that I was right. | 60 |
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