Better Things

I have really come to enjoy poetry over the past few years. Particularly because of this book (and it's on sale right now). So, tonight I thought I'd just type up one of the poems we've enjoyed lately.

Better Things - Anonymous - from Grade 10 

Better to smell the violet cool Than sip the glowing wine;

Better to hark a hidden brook Than watch a diamond shine.

Better the love of a gentle heart Than beauty's favors proud;

Better the rose's living seed Than roses in a crowd.

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 a mother's hand Than eat alone at will;

Better to trust in God than say, My goods my storehouse fill.

Better to be a little wise Than in knowledge to abound;

Better to teach a child than toil To fill perfection's round.

Better to sit at a master's feet Than thrill a listening state;

Better suspect that thou art proud Than be sure that thou art great.

Better to walk in the realm unseen Than watch the hour's event;

Better the "well done" at the last Than the air with shoutings rent.

Better to have a quiet grief Than a hurrying delight;

Better the twilight of the dawn Than the noonday burning bright.

Better to sit at the water's birth Than a sea of waves to win;

To live in the love that floweth forth Than the love that cometh in.

Better a death when work is done Than earth's most favored birth;

Better a child in God's great house Than a king of all the earth.