Now, my co – mates and brothers in exile,

Hath not old customs make this life more sweet

Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods

More free from peril than the envious court!

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,

The seasons difference; as the icy fang

And churlish chiding of the winters wind,

Which when it bites and blows upon my body,

Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say

This is no flattery; these are counsellors

That feelingly persuade me what I am.

Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it.