Book 1 — LXXXIII A WISH
Reading edition
Happy were he could finish forth his fate In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure From all society, from love and hate Of worldly folk, there should he sleep secure; Then wake again, and yield God ever praise; Content with hip, with haws, and brambleberry; In contemplation passing still his days, And change of holy thoughts to make him merry: Who, when he dies, his tomb might be the bush Where harmless robin resteth with the thrush: —Happy were he!
R. Devereux, Earl of Essex