CONTENTED IN THE VALE.
While envy and ambition fire,
The wealthy and the proud,
I to my humble cot retire,
To shun the selfish croud.
Secure, I envy not a king,
While o’er my nut brown ale,
I merrily and jocund sing,
Contented in the vale.
Let senators and statesmen great
Together disagree,
While I remain in humble state
Both unconcerned and free.
No duns to interrupt my joy,
Nor troubles to assail,
I’d live retir’d from care and noise,
Contented in the vale.
The stately oak that proudly held
Dominion o’er the plains,
Is by the furious tempest fell’d,
The humble reed remains.
Then may I envy not the hill,
Nor at my fortune rail,
But unconstrain’d continue still,
Contented in the vale.
For the New-York Weekly Magazine.