Sweet Content

Thomas Dekker 1572 – 1632



ART thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
   O sweet content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex'd?
   O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex'd
To add to golden numbers golden numbers?
   O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny--hey nonny nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring?
   O sweet content!
Swim'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?
   O punishment!
Then he that patiently want's burden bears,
No burden bears, but is a king, a king!
   O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny--hey nonny nonny!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
102

Quick analysis:

Scheme aBcDcaBAAE fBaDafBAAE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 745
Words 128
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10

Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker was an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists. more…

All Thomas Dekker poems | Thomas Dekker Books

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