Russian /English << >>English /Russian
Deutsch/English << >>English only    

Robert Devereux, earl of Essex
1566 - 1601

Happy were he could finish forth his fate
In some unhaunted desert, most obscure
From all societies, from love and hate
Of worldly folk; then might he sleep secure;
Then wake again, and give God ever praise,
Content with hips and haws and bramble-berry;
In contemplation spending all his days,
And change of holy thoughts to make him merry;
Where, when he dies, his tomb may be a bush,
Where harmless robin dwells with gentle thrush.

© 2001 Elena and Yacov Feldman