Contentment

by Frank Dempster Sherman

A Girl to love, a pipe to smoke,
Enough to eat and drink;
A friend with whom to crack a joke,
And one to make me think;
A book or two of simple prose,
A thousand more of rhyme:
No matter then how fast Time goes,
I take no heed of Time!

The little wife inspires my thought
With serious intent;
She cheers me with her wisdom fraught
With love and sentiment:
Or prose to read, or rhyme to sing,
She makes them each sublime:
No matter then how Time takes wing,
I take no heed of Time!

God grant me that when grown so old
Nor pipe nor glass I crave,
The little wife and books may hold
My heart unto the grave:
There let me sleep in peace below
The turf, where ivies climb:
No matter then how Time shall go,
I take no heed of Time!