Give me a roof where Wisdom dwells,
Where honeysuckle smiles and smells,
A bleating flock, some lowing kine,
An honest welcome always mine,
A homely draught, a humble meal,
Leisure to live, to think, to feel,
A narrow plot, a prospect wide,
A patch upon the mountain side!
From these my heart you will not wean
For Fashion’s tinsel, Splendour’s sheen,
The Sceptre’s favour, Senate’s prize,
No, nor the Empire of your eyes.
Farewell! The Valley be your own!
And I will scale the heights,-alone.
Alfred Austin (1835 – 1913) was an English journalist and a poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or simply refused the honor. It was claimed that he was being rewarded for his support for the Conservative leader Lord Salisbury in the General Election of 1895.