Better Things + 

Better to smell the violet + 

Than sip the glowing wine; + 

Better to hearken to a brook + 

Than watch a diamond shine. + 

Better to have a loving friend + 

Than ten admiring foes; + 

Better a daisy’s earthy root + 

Than a gorgeous, dying rose. + 

Better to love in loneliness + 

Than bask in love all day; + 

Better the fountain in the heart + 

Than the fountain by the way. + 

Better be fed by mother’s hand + 

Than eat alone at will; + 

Better to trust in God, than say, + 

My goods my storehouse fill. + 

Better to be a little wise + 

Than in knowledge to abound; + 

Better to teach a child than toil + 

To fill perfection’s round. + 

Better to sit at some man’s feet + 

Than thrill a listening state; + 

Better suspect that thou art proud + 

Than be sure that thou art great. + 

Better to walk the realm unseen + 

Than watch the hour’s event; + 

Better the “Well done, faithful slave!” + 

Than the air with shoutings rent. + 

Better to have a quiet grief + 

Than many turbulent joys; + 

Better to miss thy manhood’s aim + 

Than sacrifice the boy’s. + 

Better a death when work is done + 

Than earth’s most favoured birth; + 

Better a child in God’s great house + 

Than the king of all the earth. + 