Classic Poem

Most tranquil, innocent, and happy life,
Full of the holy joy chaste nature yields,
Redeem'd from care, and sin, and the hot strife
That rings around the smoked unwholesome dome
Where mighty Mammon his black sceptre wields —
Here let me rest in humble cottage home,
Here let me labour in the enamell'd fields:
How pleasant in these ancient woods to roam
With kind-eyed friend, or kindly-teaching book!
Or the fresh gallop on the dew-dropt heath,
Or at fair eventide with feathered hook
To strike the swift trout in the shallow brook,
Or in the bower to twine the jasmin wreath,
Or at the earliest blush of summer morn
To trim the bed, or turn the new-mown hay,
Or pick the perfumed hop, or reap the golden corn!
So should my peaceful life all smoothly glide away.