It's good the great green earth to roam, <br />Where sights of awe the soul inspire; <br />But oh, it's best, the coming home, <br />The crackle of one's own hearth-fire! <br />You've hob-nobbed with the solemn Past; <br />You've seen the pageantry of kings; <br />Yet oh, how sweet to gain at last <br />The peace and rest of Little Things! <br /> <br />Perhaps you're counted with the Great; <br />You strain and strive with mighty men; <br />Your hand is on the helm of State; <br />Colossus-like you stride . . . and then <br />There comes a pause, a shining hour, <br />A dog that leaps, a hand that clings: <br />O Titan, turn from pomp and power; <br />Give all your heart to Little Things. <br /> <br />Go couch you childwise in the grass, <br />Believing it's some jungle strange, <br />Where mighty monsters peer and pass, <br />Where beetles roam and spiders range. <br />'Mid gloom and gleam of leaf and blade, <br />What dragons rasp their painted wings! <br />O magic world of shine and shade! <br />O beauty land of Little Things! <br /> <br />I sometimes wonder, after all, <br />Amid this tangled web of fate, <br />If what is great may not be small, <br />And what is small may not be great. <br />So wondering I go my way, <br />Yet in my heart contentment sings . . . <br />O may I ever see, I pray, <br />God's grace and love in Little Things. <br /> <br />So give to me, I only beg, <br />A little roof to call my own, <br />A little cider in the keg, <br />A little meat upon the bone; <br />A little garden by the sea, <br />A little boat that dips and swings . . . <br />Take wealth, take fame, but leave to me, <br />O Lord of Life, just Little Things.<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-joy-of-little-things/
