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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  Thomas Dekker (c. 1570–1632)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Sweet Content

Thomas Dekker (c. 1570–1632)

ART thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?

O sweet content!

Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex’d?

O punishment!

Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex’d

To add to golden numbers golden numbers?

O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!

Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny—hey nonny nonny!

Can’st drink the waters of the crispèd spring?

O sweet content!

Swim’st thou in wealth, yet sink’st in thine own tears?

O punishment!

Then he that patiently want’s burden bears,

No burden bears, but is a king, a king!

O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!

Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny—hey nonny nonny!