William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
Wife, Children, and FriendsWilliam Robert Spencer (17701834)
W
(The list of what Fate for each mortal intends)
At the long string of ills a kind goddess relented
And slipt in three blessings—wife, children, and friends.
For justice divine could not compass her ends;
The scheme of man’s penance he swore was defeated,
For earth becomes heaven with wife, children, and friends.
The fund ill-secured oft in bankruptcy ends;
But the heart issues bills which are never protested
When drawn on the firm of Wife, Children, and Friends.
The death-wounded tar who his colours defends,
Drops a tear of regret as he dying remembers
How blest was his home with wife, children, and friends.
Whom duty to far distant latitudes sends,
With transport would barter whole ages of glory
For one happy day with wife, children, and friends.
Though round him Arabia’s whole fragrance ascends,
The merchant still thinks of the woodbines that cover
The bower where he sat with wife, children, and friends.
Alone on itself for enjoyment depends;
But drear is the twilight of age if it borrow
No warmth from the smiles of wife, children, and friends.
The laurel which o’er her dead favourite bends,
O’er me wave the willow! and long may it flourish
Bedewed with the tears of wife, children, and friends.
To subjects too solemn insensibly tends:
Let us drink—pledge me high—Love and Virtue shall flavour
The glass which I fill to wife, children, and friends.