Classic Poem

While others ask for wealth or state,
Think to be happy's to be great,
And vainly swell with pride,
Give me, ye Gods! I ask no more,
Of riches a sufficient store,
T'enjoy my fire-side.

Let temperance my butler wait,
Prudence stand porter at my gate,
With Charity ally'd;
A friend to chat away an hour,
To cheat old time's encreasing pow'r,
By a happy fire-side.

Let smiling Delia too be there,
No friend so pleasing as the fair,
With tenderness supply'd;
How sweet, where no domestic strife,
The faithful husband, gentle wife,
By a happy fire-side.

My offspring, if such Heaven permit,
In smiling innocence to sit,
My pleasure and my pride;
While in each infant's glowing face,
Their mother's sweetness all I trace,
By a happy fire-side.

Let malice shoot her poison'd darts,
While social love entwines our hearts,
No slander shall divide;
Thro' life I'll steal without a sigh,
Our love shall every wish supply,
By a happy fire-side.