Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
¶[1566-1601]
A Passion of My Lord of Essex
¶HAPPY were he could finish forth his fateIn some unhaunted desert, where, obscureFrom all society, from love and hateOf worldly folk; then might he sleep secure;Then wake again, and ever give God praise,Content with hip, with haws, and bramble-berry;In contemplation passing all his days,And change of holy thoughts to make him merry;Who, when he dies, his tomb might be a bush,Where harmless Robin dwells with gende thrush.—Happy were he!