Contentment
Contentment
Original Text
The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, ed. H. E. S. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1895): 157-58. PS 1955 A1 1895 Robarts Library.
"Man wants but little here below"
2 I only wish a hut of stone,
3(A very plain brown stone will do,)
4 That I may call my own; --
5And close at hand is such a one,
6In yonder street that fronts the sun.
7Plain food is quite enough for me;
8 Three courses are as good as ten; --
9If Nature can subsist on three,
10 Thank Heaven for three. Amen!
11I always thought cold victual nice; --
12My choice would be vanilla-ice.
13I care not much for gold or land; --
14 Give me a mortgage here and there, --
15Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
16 Or trifling railroad share, --
17I only ask that Fortune send
18A little more than I shall spend.
19Honors are silly toys, I know,
20 And titles are but empty names;
23I'm very sure I should not care
25Jewels are baubles; 't is a sin
26 To care for such unfruitful things; --
27One good-sized diamond in a pin, --
28 Some, not so large, in rings, --
29A ruby, and a pearl, or so,
30Will do for me; -- I laugh at show.
31My dame should dress in cheap attire;
32 (Good, heavy silks are never dear;) --
33I own perhaps I might desire
36Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.
37I would not have the horse I drive
38 So fast that folks must stop and stare;
39An easy gait -- two forty-five --
40 Suits me; I do not care; --
41Perhaps, for just a single spurt,
42Some seconds less would do no hurt.
43Of pictures, I should like to own
45I love so much their style and tone,
47(A landscape, -- foreground golden dirt, --
48The sunshine painted with a squirt.)
49Of books but few, -- some fifty score
50 For daily use, and bound for wear;
51The rest upon an upper floor; --
52 Some little luxury there
53Of red morocco's gilded gleam
54And vellum rich as country cream.
55Busts, cameos, gems, -- such things as these,
56 Which others often show for pride,
57I value for their power to please,
58 And selfish churls deride; --
61Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn,
62 Nor ape the glittering upstart fool; --
63Shall not carved tables serve my turn,
65Give grasping pomp its double share, --
66I ask but one recumbent chair.
67Thus humble let me live and die,
69If Heaven more generous gifts deny,
70 I shall not miss them much, --
71Too grateful for the blessing lent
72Of simple tastes and mind content!
Notes
1] The epigraph is from Oliver Goldsmith's "The Hermit, or Edwin and Angelina," in chapter 8 of his The Vicar of Wakefield.
"Should you like to hear what moderate wishes life brings one to at last? I used to be very ambitious, -- wasteful, extravagant, and luxurious in all my fancies. Read too much in the Arabian Nights. Must have the lamp, -- couldn't do without the ring. Exercise every morning on the brazen horse. Plump down into castles as full of little milk-white princesses as a nest is of young sparrows. All love me dearly at once. -- Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the reality. I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly primitive, -- almost, perhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our condition, but must not hope to find it there. I think you will be willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited desires of my maturity." (p. 157) Back to Line
"Should you like to hear what moderate wishes life brings one to at last? I used to be very ambitious, -- wasteful, extravagant, and luxurious in all my fancies. Read too much in the Arabian Nights. Must have the lamp, -- couldn't do without the ring. Exercise every morning on the brazen horse. Plump down into castles as full of little milk-white princesses as a nest is of young sparrows. All love me dearly at once. -- Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the reality. I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly primitive, -- almost, perhaps, ascetic. We carry happiness into our condition, but must not hope to find it there. I think you will be willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited desires of my maturity." (p. 157) Back to Line
21] Plenipo: Minister plenipotentiary. Back to Line
22] The Court of St. James, where foreign diplomats are accredited. Back to Line
24] Gubernator: Governor. Back to Line
34] Cashmere: fine wool from Kashmir in northern India. Back to Line
35] marrowy crapes: most choice examples of this light wrinkled fabric. Back to Line
44] Titians: paintings by Tiziano Vecellio (1477-1576), an Italian master.
Raphaels: paintings by Raffaeloo Santi (1483-1520), an Italian master. Back to Line
Raphaels: paintings by Raffaeloo Santi (1483-1520), an Italian master. Back to Line
46] Turners: paintings by the Romantic English master, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). Back to Line
59] Stradivarius: violins by the Italian maker, Antonius Stradivarius (1644-1737). Back to Line
60] Meerschaums: tobacco pipes made of sepiolite, a clay-like substance (not a person). Back to Line
64] buhl: boulle, after André Charles Boulle, a French craftsman who inlaid tortoiseshell and yellow and white metal in his cabinets. Back to Line
68] Midas: Phrygian king of classical myth whose desire for gold was granted by means of his touch, which turned everything into gold. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1858
Publication Notes
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme