| |
| I AM content, I do not care, | |
| Wag as it will the world for me; | |
| When fuss and fret was all my fare, | |
| It got no ground, as I could see: | |
| So when away my caring went, | 5 |
| I counted cost, and was content. | |
| |
| With more of thanks and less of thought, | |
| I strive to make my matters meet; | |
| To seek what ancient sages sought, | |
| Physic and food, in sour and sweet: | 10 |
| To take what passes in good part, | |
| And keep the hiccups from the heart. | |
| |
| With good and gentle humour’d hearts, | |
| I choose to chat where’er I come, | |
| Whate’er the subject be that starts; | 15 |
| But if I get among the glum, | |
| I hold my tongue to tell the troth, | |
| And keep my breath to cool my broth. | |
| |
| For chance or change of peace or pain; | |
| For fortune’s favour or her frown; | 20 |
| For lack of glut, for loss or gain, | |
| I never dodge, nor up nor down: | |
| But swing what way the ship shall swim, | |
| Or take about, with equal trim. | |
| |
| I suit not where I shall not speed, | 25 |
| Nor trace the turn of every tide; | |
| If simple sense will not succeed, | |
| I make no bustling, but abide: | |
| For shining wealth, or scaring woe, | |
| I force no friend, I fear no foe. | 30 |
| |
| I love my neighbour as myself, | |
| Myself like him too, by his leave; | |
| Nor to his pleasure, pow’r, or pelf, | |
| Came I to crouch, as I conceive: | |
| Dame Nature doubtless has design’d | 35 |
| A man, the monarch of his mind. | |
| |
| Now taste and try this temper, sirs, | |
| Mood it, and brood it in your breast; | |
| Or if ye ween, for wordly stirs, | |
| That man does right to mar his rest; | 40 |
| Let me be deft, and debonair, | |
| I am content, I do not care. | |
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