Explore "Content and Happiness" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
How is it that men pray their earthly lot / May be 'content and happiness'? Dire foes / Without one common trait which kinship shows / I hold these two. Contentment comes when sought, / While Happiness pursued was never caught. / But, sudden, storms the heart with mighty throes / Whenceforth, mild eyed Content affrighted goes, / To seek some calmer heart, less danger fraught.
Bold Happiness knows but one rival -- Fear; / Who follows ever on his footsteps, sent / By jealous Fate who calls great joy a crime. / While in far ways 'mong leaves just turning sere, / With gaze serene and placid, walks Content. / No heart ere held these two guests at one time.