A Collection of Miscellanies Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses & Letters, Occasionally Written. By John Norris ... The Second Edition Corrected |
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Sitting in an Arbour.
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 | A Collection of Miscellanies |  |
Sitting in an Arbour.
I
Thus ye good Powers, thus let me ever beSerene, retir'd, from Love and Business free;
The rest of your great World I here resign
To the Contentions of the great;
I only ask that this Retreat
This little Tenement be mine.
All my Ambition's to this point confin'd;
Others inlarge their fortunes, I my mind.
II
How Calm, how happy, how serene am I!How satisfy'd with my own Company!
To few things forreign my Content I owe;
But in my self have almost all
Which I dare good or pleasing call,
Or (what's as well) I fancy so.
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Whose whole Bliss in himself does terminate.
III
Pleas'd with a various Scene of thought I lie,Whil'st an Obliging Stream slides gently by
Silent and Deep as is the Bliss I chuse,
All round the little winged Quire
Pathetic, tender thoughts inspire,
And with their strains provoke my Muse.
With ease the Inspiration I obey
And Sing as unconcern'd and as well pleas'd as they.
IV
If ought below deserve the name of Bliss,It must (what e're the great ones think) be this.
So once the travelling Patriarch doubly blest
With dreams divine from Heaven sent,
And his own Heaven of Content,
On's rocky pillow took his rest.
Angels stood smiling by and said, were we our Bliss
To change, it should be for a state like his.
V
'Tis strange so cheap, and yet so great a goodShould by so very Few be understood.
That Bliss which Others seek with toil and sweat
For which they prodigally wast
Their treasures, and yet miss at last,
Here I have at an easie rate.
So those that Costly Physick use in vain,
Sometimes by some Cheap by Receipt their health obtain.
| A Collection of Miscellanies | |