Better Things

 Better to smell the violet

Than sip the glowing wine;

Better to hearken to a brook

Than watch a diamond shine.

Better to have a loving friend

Than ten admiring foes;

Better a daisy's earthy root

Than a gorgeous, dying rose.

Better to love in loneliness

Than bask in love all day;

Better the fountain in the heart

Than the fountain by the way.

Better be fed by mother's hand

Than eat alone at will;

Better to trust in God, than say,

My goods my storehouse fill.

Better to have a quiet grief

Than many turbulent joys;

Better to miss thy manhood's aim

Than sacrifice the boy's.

Better a death when work is done

Than earth's most favoured birth;

Better a child in God's great house

Than the king of all the earth.

                                              ~George MacDonald