Tranquillity

Oh if it were not for my wife And family increase, How gladly would I close my life In monastery peace! A sweet and scented isle I know Where monks in muteness dwell, And there in sereness I would go And seek a cell. On milk and oaten meal I'd live, With carrot, kail and cheese; The greens that tiny gardens give, The bounty of the bees. Then war might rage, I would not know, Or knowing would not care: No echo of a world of woe Would irk me there. And I would be forgotten too As mankind I forgot; Read Shakespeare and the Bible through, And brood in quiet thought. Content with birds and trees and flowers In mellow age to find 'Mid monastery's holy hours God's Peace of Mind.