[Page 65]

My WISH.

1 Wou'd Heav'n indulgent grant my Wish
2 For future Life, it shou'd be this;
3 Health, Peace, and Friendship I wou'd share
4 A Mind from Bus'ness free, and Care;
5 A Soil that's dry in temp'rate Air;
6 A Fortune from Incumbrance clear,
7 About a Hundred Pounds a Year;
8 A House not small, built warm and neat,
9 Above a Hut, below a Seat;
10 With Groops of Trees beset around,
11 In Prospect of the lower Ground,
12 Beneath the Summit of a Hill,
13 From whence the gushing Waters trill,
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14 In various Streams and Windings flow
15 To aid a River just below;
16 At a small Distance from a Wood,
17 And near some Neighbours wise and good;
18 There would I spend my remnant Days,
19 Review my Life, and mend my Ways.
20 I'd be some honest Farmer's Guest,
21 That with a cleanly Wife is blest;
22 A friendly Cleric shou'd be near,
23 Whose Flock and Office were his Care;
24 My Thoughts my own, my Time I'd spend
25 In writing to some faithful Friend:
26 Or on a Bank, by purling Brook,
27 Delight me with some useful Book;
28 Some Sage, or Bard, as Fancy led;
29 Then ruminate on what I'd read.
30 Some moral Thoughts shou'd be my Theme,
31 Or verdant Field, or gliding Stream;
32 Or Flocks, or Herds, that Shepherds love;
33 The Shepherds wou'd my Song approve.
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34 No Flatt'ry base, nor baser Spite,
35 Nor one loose Thought my Muse shou'd write;
36 Nor vainly try unequal Flight.
37 Great George's Name let Poets sing,
38 That rise on a sublimer Wing:
39 I'd keep my Passions quite serene;
40 My Person and Apartment clean;
41 My Dress not slovenly, but mean.
42 Some Money still I'd keep in Store,
43 That I might have to give the Poor;
44 To help a Neighbour in Distress,
45 I'd save from Pleasure, Food, and Dress.
46 I'd feed on Herbs, the limpid Spring
47 Shou'd be my Helicon. — I'd sing;
48 And be much happier than a King.
49 Thus calmly see my Sun decline;
50 My Life and Manners thus refine.
51 And acting in my narrow Sphere,
52 In chearful Hope, without one Care,
53 I'd quit the World, nor wish a Tear.

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Title (in Source Edition): My WISH.
Author: Mary Chandler
Themes:
Genres: wish poem

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Source edition

Chandler, Mary, 1687-1745. The Description Of Bath. A Poem. Humbly Inscribed To Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia. By Mrs. Mary Chandler. The Third Edition. To which are added, Several Poems by the same Author [poems only]. London: Printed for James Leake, Bookseller in Bath, 1736, pp. 65-67. 77p. (ESTC T63103) (Page images digitized from a copy at Princeton University.)

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