Let me work and be glad,
O Lord, and I ask no more;
With will to turn where the sunbeams burn
At the sill of my workshop door.

Aforetime I prayed my prayer
For the glory and gain of earth,
But now grown wise and with opened eyes,
I have seen what the prayer was worth.

Give me my work to do
And the peace of the task well done;
Youth of the Spring and its blossoming
And the light of the moon and sun.

Pleasure of little things
That never may pall or end,
And fast in my hold no lesser gold
Than the honest hand of a friend.

Let me forget in time
Folly of dreams that I had;
Give me my share of a world most fair—
Let me work and be glad.


This poem is in the public domain.