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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

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

Thrice Happy He Who by Some Shady Grove

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

THRICE happy he who by some shady grove,

Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own;

Though solitary, who is not alone,

But doth converse with that eternal love.

O how more sweet is bird’s harmonious moan,

Or the hoarse sobbings of the widowed dove,

Than those smooth whisperings near a prince’s throne,

Which good make doubtful, do the evil approve!

Or how more sweet is Zephyr’s wholesome breath,

And sighs embalmed which new-born flowers unfold,

Than that applause vain honour doth bequeath!

How sweet are streams to poison drunk in gold!

The world is full of horrors, troubles, slights;

Woods’ harmless shades have only true delights.