If I live to grow old, as I find I go down,
Let this be my fate in a country town;
May I have a warm house, with a stone at my gate,
And a cleanly young girl to rub my bald pate.
May I govern my passions with an absolute sway,
Grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.
- Walter Pope, The Old Man's Wish,
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Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
With all thy sober charms possest,
Whose wishes never learnt to stray.
With all thy sober charms possest,
Whose wishes never learnt to stray.
My wish isn't to mean everything to everyone but something to someone.
My wish isn't to mean everything to everyone but something to someone.
Wishing, of all employments is the worst.
Wishing, of all employments is the worst.
Man wants but little, nor that little long;
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which read more
Man wants but little, nor that little long;
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which frugal nature lent him for an hour!
Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.
Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.
He calls his wish, it comes; he sends it back,
And says he called another; that arrives,
read more
He calls his wish, it comes; he sends it back,
And says he called another; that arrives,
Meets the same welcome; yet he still calls on;
Till one calls him, who varies not his call,
But holds him fast, in chains of darkness bound,
Till Nature dies, and judgment sets him free;
A freedom far less welcome than this chain.
What most we wish, with ease we fancy near.
What most we wish, with ease we fancy near.
What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in
abundance.
[Ger., Was man in read more
What one has wished for in youth, in old age one has in
abundance.
[Ger., Was man in der Jugend wunscht, hat man im Alter die
Fulle.]
