Book 5 — A WISH.
Reading edition
Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire; Whose trees in summer yield him shade, In winter, fire.
Blest who can unconcernedly find Hours, days, and years, glide soft away In health of body, peace of mind, Quiet by day,
Sound sleep by night; study and ease Together mixed; sweet recreation, And innocence, which most does please, With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
POPE.
[Notes: Alexander Pope, born 1688, died 1744. The author of numerous poems and translations, all of them marked by the same lucid thought and polished versification. The Essay on Man, the Satires and Epistles, and the translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, are amongst the most important.
Write a paraphrase of the first two stanzas.]
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