Page:The Bengali Book of English Verse.djvu/106

74 I sought for peace within my mind: A man content I roved the green, In folly's path was never seen.

The sick, the grieved, I tend them still Beside their beds of straw; A welcome guest where'er I come, I always seek the poor man's home: My word they say is law; Then be fulfill'd a monarch's will, Avaunt, fly Fear, let Discord cease, And come and bless us meek-eyed Peace.

I ask'd not to be raised to state, I never sought a throne; With greater pleasure I could dwell, My friends and I within a cell, Than thus reign all alone— The greatest man among the great! No, rather would I choose to be The poorest of the company.

O Thou! who from the lowliest life Hast raised me 'bove my peers, When all the world lies hush'd in sleep, Before Thy throne my soul doth creep, In penitence and tears: Since to this state, with peril rife, Lord! Thou hast dragg'd me in Thy wrath, In pity light my rugged path.