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Home  »  The World’s Wit and Humor  »  The Ideal Husband to His Wife

The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.

Sam Walter Foss (1858–1911)

The Ideal Husband to His Wife

WE’VE lived for forty years, dear wife,

And walked together side by side,

And you to-day are just as dear

As when you were my bride.

I’ve tried to make life glad for you,

One long, sweet honeymoon of joy,

A dream of marital content,

Without the least alloy.

I’ve smoothed all boulders from our path,

That we in peace might toil along,

By always hastening to admit

That I was right and you were wrong.

No mad diversity of creed

Has ever sundered me from thee;

For I permit you evermore

To borrow your ideas of me.

And thus it is, through weal or wo,

Our love forevermore endures;

For I permit that you should take

My views and creeds, and make them yours.

And thus I let you have my way,

And thus in peace we toil along,

For I am willing to admit

That I am right and you are wrong.

And when our matrimonial skiff

Strikes snags in love’s meandering stream,

I lift our shallop from the rocks,

And float as in a placid dream.

And well I know our marriage bliss

While life shall last will never cease,

For I shall always let thee do,

In generous love, just what I please.

Peace comes, and discord flies away;

Love’s bright day follows hatred’s night;

For I am ready to admit

That you are wrong and I am right.