Kitabı oku: «Watt's Songs Against Evil», sayfa 5

AGAINST EVIL COMPANY

 
Why should I join with those in play
In whom I've no delight;
Who curse and swear, but never pray;
Who call ill names, and fight?
 
 
I hate to hear a wanton song:
Their words offend my ears:
I should not dare defile my tongue
With language such as theirs.
 
 
Away from fools I'll turn my eyes,
Nor with the scoffers go:
I would be walking with the wise,
That wiser I may grow.
 
 
From one rude boy, that's used to mock,
They learn the wicked jest:
One sickly sheep infects the flock,
And poisons all the rest.
 
 
My God, I hate to walk or dwell
With sinful children here:
Then let me not be sent to hell,
Where none but sinners are.
 

THE THIEF

 
Why should I deprive my neighbor
Of his goods against his will?
Hands were made for honest labor,
Not to plunder, or to steal.
 
 
'Tis a foolish self-deceiving
By such tricks to hope for gain:
All that's ever got by thieving
Turns to sorrow, shame, and pain.
 
 
Have not Eve and Adam taught us
Their sad profit to compute,
To what dismal state they brought us
When they stole forbidden fruit?
 
 
Oft we see a young beginner
Practise little pilfering ways,
Till grown up a harden'd sinner,
Then the gallows ends his days.
 
 
Theft will not be always hidden,
Though we fancy none can spy:
When we take a thing forbidden,