| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Truly Great | | By William H. Davies (1871–1940) |
| | | MY walls outside must have some flowers, | |
| My walls within must have some books; | |
| A house that ’s small; a garden large, | |
| And in it leafy nooks: | |
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| A little gold that ’s sure each week; | 5 |
| That comes not from my living kind, | |
| But from a dead man in his grave, | |
| Who cannot change his mind: | |
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| A lovely wife, and gentle too; | |
| Contented that no eyes but mine | 10 |
| Can see her many charms, nor voice | |
| To call her beauty fine: | |
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| Where she would in that stone cage live, | |
| A self-made prisoner, with me; | |
| While many a wild bird sang around, | 15 |
| On gate, on bush, on tree: | |
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| And she sometimes to answer them, | |
| In her far sweeter voice than all; | |
| Till birds, that loved to look on leaves, | |
| Will doat on a stone wall. | 20 |
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| —With this small house, this garden large, | |
| This little gold, this lovely mate, | |
| With health in body, peace at heart— | |
| Show me a man more great. | | | | |
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