| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | A Wish | | By Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) |
| | | THIS only grant me, that my means may lie | |
| Too low for envy, for contempt too high. | |
| Some honour I would have, | |
| Not from great deeds, but good alone. | |
| The unknown are better, than ill known; | 5 |
| Rumour can ope the grave. | |
| Acquaintance I would have, but when’t depends | |
| Not on the number, but the choice of friends. | |
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| Books should, not business, entertain the light, | |
| And sleep, as undisturb’d as death, the night. | 10 |
| My house a cottage more | |
| Than palace, and should fitting be, | |
| For all my use, no luxury. | |
| My garden painted o’er | |
| With nature’s hand, not art’s; and pleasures yield, | 15 |
| Horace might envy in his Sabine field. | |
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| Thus would I double my life’s fading space, | |
| For he that runs it well, twice runs his race. | |
| And in this true delight, | |
| These unbought sports, this happy state, | 20 |
| I would not fear nor wish my fate, | |
| But boldly say each night, | |
| To-morrow let my sun his beams display, | |
| Or, in clouds hide them; I have liv’d to-day. | | | | |
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