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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Song: ‘Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content’

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Robert Greene (1558–1592)

Song: ‘Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content’

SWEET are the thoughts that savour of content;

The quiet mind is richer than a crown;

Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent;

The poor estate scorns fortune’s angry frown:

Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,

Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.

The homely house that harbours quiet rest;

The cottage that affords no pride nor care;

The mean that ’grees with country music best;

The sweet consort of mirth and music’s fare;

Obscurèd life sets down a type of bliss:

A mind content both crown and kingdom is.