WIFE.
The world well tried—the sweetest thing in life
Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.
Lady Jane, Canto II. N.P. WILLIS.
Look through mine eyes with thine. True wife,
Round my true heart thine arms entwine;
My other dearer life in life,
Look through my very soul with thine!
The Miller's Daughter. A. TENNYSON.
She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears,
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;
And love, and thought, and joy.
The Sparrow's Nest. W. WORDSWORTH.
My latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight.
Paradise Lost, Bk. V. MILTON.
She is mine own!
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 4. SHAKESPEARE.
A wife, domestic, good, and pure,
Like snail, should keep within her door;
But not, like snail, with silver track,
Place all her wealth upon her back.
Good Wives. W.W. HOW.
How much the wife is dearer than the bride.
An Irregular Ode. LORD LYTTELTON.
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled,
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
To cheer thy sickness, watch thy health,
Partake, but never waste thy wealth,
Or stand with smile unmurmuring by,
And lighten half thy poverty.
Bride of Abydos, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
This flour of wifely patience.
The Clerkes Tale, Pt. V. CHAUCER.
And mistress of herself, though china fall.
Moral Essays, Epistle II. A. POPE.
Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
The Happy Marriage. E. MOORE.
Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife;
A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. SIMONIDES.