We've lived for forty years, dear wife, <br />And walked together side by side, <br />And you to-day are just as dear <br />As when you were my bride. <br />I've tried to make life glad for you, <br />One long, sweet honeymoon of joy, <br />A dream of marital content, <br />Without the least alloy. <br />I've smoothed all boulders from our path, <br />That we in peace might toil along, <br />By always hastening to admit <br />That I was right and you were wrong. <br /> <br />No mad diversity of creed <br />Has ever sundered me from thee; <br />For I permit you evermore <br />To borrow your ideas of me. <br />And thus it is, through weal or woe, <br />Our love forevermore endures; <br />For I permit that you should take <br />My views and creeds, and make them yours. <br />And thus I let you have my way, <br />And thus in peace we toil along, <br />For I am willing to admit <br />That I am right and you are wrong. <br /> <br />And when our matrimonial skiff <br />Strikes snags in love's meandering stream, <br />I lift our shallop from the rocks, <br />And float as in a placid dream. <br />And well I know our marriage bliss <br />While life shall last will never cease; <br />For I shall always let thee do, <br />In generous love, just what I please. <br />Peace comes, and discord flies away, <br />Love's bright day follows hatred's night; <br />For I am ready to admit <br />That you are wrong and I am right.<br /><br />Sam Walter Foss<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ideal-husband-to-his-wife/
