The world well tried--the sweetest thing in life
Is the unclouded welcome of a wife.
_Lady Jane, Canto II_. N.P. WILLIS.
Look through mine eyes with thine. True wife,
Round my true heart thine arms entwine;
My other dearer life in life,
Look through my very soul with thine!
_The Miller's Daughter_. A. TENNYSON.
She gave me eyes, she gave me ears;
And humble cares, and delicate fears,
A heart, the fountain of sweet tears;
And love, and thought, and joy.
_The Sparrow's Nest_. W. WORDSWORTH.
My latest found,
Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight.
_Paradise Lost, Bk. V_. MILTON.
She is mine own!
And I as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
_Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.
A wife, domestic, good, and pure,
Like snail, should keep within her door;
But not, like snail, with silver track,
Place all her wealth upon her back.
_Good Wives_. W.W. HOW.
How much the wife is dearer than the bride.
_An Irregular Ode_. LORD LYTTELTON.
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled,
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
_Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
To cheer thy sickness, watch thy health,
Partake, but never waste thy wealth,
Or stand with smile unmurmuring by,
And lighten half thy poverty.
_Bride of Abydos, Canto I_. LORD BYRON.
This flour of wifely patience.
_The Clerkes Tale, Pt. V_. CHAUCER.
And mistress of herself, though china fall.
_Moral Essays, Epistle II_. A. POPE.
Time still, as he flies, brings increase to her truth,
And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth.
_The Happy Marriage_. E. MOORE.
Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife;
A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. SIMONIDES.