TENANT at will indeed I am; & yet Wish for no Lease of this my life, since I Under so good a Lord do live, & sitt At rent allmost as low as He is high: The greatest summ that He expects from me Is that which nothing costs, Humilitie. 2 Humility, with Homage, Fealty, and Some @3easy@1 Services; for mighty He, Least I should shrink, lays to his own kinde hand And helps me to obey himself. oh free And gentle Lord, who to his Tenant gives, Aforehand, all the Rent that he receives! 3 As for the Farms increase, though I improve It to a thousand fold, yet still I pay No more to Him, but only more of love: And what gains heavns great King, yf Dust & Clay Heap his affections on him! Thus, in fine The Farm's Rent's his, but all the Profits mine. 4 Besides, to keep my house in good repair, With all Materials He doth me supply. Yf to decay it falleth, I must bear The blame alone: yea when Mortality Shall tumble't into dust, that Ruine from My Fall & first offence, at last, will come. 5 But now to leave so good a Farm, can I Contented be? oh yes I can, whene'r My Lord shall please to turn me out, since by His boundless Love eternal Mansions are Prepar'd above. of short-termd Tenants heer Who would not chuse to be Freeholders there? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WILLIAM AND EMILY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CALIFORNIA CITY LANDSCAPE by CARL SANDBURG THE HASTY PUDDING by JOEL BARLOW SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: A LITANY IN TIME OF PLAGUE by THOMAS NASHE THE FOOL AND THE POET by ALEXANDER POPE THE ARGONAUTS (ARGONATUICA): MEDEA'S DREAM by APOLLONIUS RHODIUS THE DEATH OF HAMPDEN by PAKENHAM THOMAS BEATTY |