C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Sir Edward Dyer (1543–1607)
My Minde to Me a Kingdom Is
M
Such perfect joy wherein I finde
As farre exceeds all earthly blisse
That God or nature hath assignde;
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my minde forbids to crave.
I seek no more than may suffice,
I presse to beare no haughtie sway;
Look! what I lack my mind supplies.
Loe, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my minde doth bring.
And hastie clymbers soon do fall;
I see that such as sit aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all.
These get with toile, and keepe with feare;
Such cares my mind could never beare….
I little have, yet seek no more:
They are but poore, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store:
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lacke, I lend; they pine, I live….
I wander not to seeke for more;
I like the plaine, I clime no hill;
In greatest storms I sitte on shore,
And laugh at them that toile in vaine
To get what must be lost againe….
Extreames are counted worst of all;
The golden meane betwixt them both
Doth surest sit, and feares no fall:
This is my choyce; for why?—I finde
No wealth is like a quiet minde….
My conscience clere my chiefe defence;
I neither seeke by bribes to please,
Nor by desert to breed offence.
Thus do I live; thus will I die:
Would all did so as well as I!